Photo Credit: Chengdu Transportation Bureau

Interface News Reporter Tang Jun

Low-altitude economic competition is in full swing, and cities are competing for application scenarios.

Interface News learned from Chengdu Transportation Bureau that on June 20, Chengdu completed the city's low-altitude manned verification mission. It is worth mentioning that the flight points of the mission include general airports, busy civil airports, scenic spots, and tall buildings located in urban areas.

that morning, a manned plane took off from Chengdu luodai general airport, stopped at the apron on the top of the central Europe center building and Qingcheng mountain, and finally landed back to luodai general airport. In the afternoon of the same day, the plane took off again from Luodai General Airport and returned after stopping at Tianfu International Airport and Shuangliu International Airport.

Central Europe Center roof apron Image: GoChengdu

the interface news learned that the mission was carried out by wofei changkong, and the aircraft model was Agusta AW109 manned helicopter. Wofei Changkong is a brand owned by Geely Holding Group. On May 25, 2024, Geely Holding announced that Wofei Changkong's global headquarters and manufacturing base will be located in Chengdu.

One of the important tasks of this flight is to verify the functionality of the Chengdu low-altitude traffic management service platform in the flight dynamic monitoring section. The platform is the "smart brain" of Chengdu's low-altitude flight. Its main function is to provide low-altitude flight supervision services and provide route planning and flight information services for operating companies.

according to the relevant person in charge of the platform, Chengdu low-altitude traffic management service platform is an integrated platform integrating UAV supervision, traffic services and commercial applications. At present, it has service functions such as flight dynamic monitoring, aviation information management, flight activity management, public safety management and control, and is further expanding the platform functions. At present, Anhui, Shenzhen, Hainan and other places are exploring platform construction, and Chengdu belongs to the first echelon of such platform construction.

Photo Credit: Chengdu Transportation Bureau

Urban manned flights are only part of the low-altitude economic industry in Chengdu, which aims to become a low-altitude economic center in the west.

As an important aviation industry town, Chengdu has a good foundation for the development of low-altitude economy. Chengdu is one of the three major cities in China (Shenyang, Shanghai, Chengdu) that have the ability to develop complete aircraft and aero engines at the same time. The aviation industry, aviation development group, COMAC, aerospace science and technology and other central enterprise groups have a layout in Chengdu. In 2023, the scale of Chengdu aviation manufacturing industry cluster will exceed 150 billion yuan, and it has a relatively complete aviation R & D and manufacturing and supporting industry system.

In the 2023 government work report, Chengdu proposed to build "the first city of industrial drones". Chengdu Economic and Information Bureau said that Chengdu's unmanned aerial vehicle industry is dominated by Chinese unmanned aerial vehicle (688297.SH), vertical and horizontal shares (688070.SH), Tengdun Technology, Aoshi Technology and other enterprises, with products covering 10kg to tonnage, basically forming a complete unmanned aerial vehicle industry chain of "research and development + manufacturing + operation + service.

In recent years, the scale of Chengdu's industrial UAV industry has maintained an average annual growth rate of more than 20%. As of 2023, Chengdu has gathered more than 110 upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial drone industry chain, achieving revenue of more than 5 billion yuan. The output of large drones ranks first in the country, and the scale of the industrial drone industry ranks among the top three in the country.

In terms of electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL), Chengdu has unicorn companies such as Wofei Changkong. Wofei Changkong has completed the full tilt transition flight experiment of AE200 aircraft, becoming the first eVTOL enterprise in China and the second in the world to complete such test subjects.

UAVs need to be tested at drone bases before leaving the factory. There are currently 20 civil unmanned aviation bases/test areas across the country. The Chengdu Pengzhou base was approved in 2022 and has become an important part of supporting the development of local low-altitude industries. The base currently has 8 test sites that can take off and land, and more than 100 companies have settled in to carry out R & D tests.

in addition, Chengdu huaizhou airport has 6 outward flight channels, a low-altitude airspace area of 1652 square kilometers, and 17 special airspace for unmanned aerial vehicles, realizing the same flight of manned aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles. In addition to Huaizhou Airport, Chengdu also has Xinjin, Chongzhou Tiangong, Longquanyi Luodai, Dujiangyan Qingchengshan and other four general airports.

At present, many cities are speeding up the application scenario of landing low-altitude flights, and "air taxis" are particularly concerned.

On March 2, 2024, Pingshan District of Shenzhen opened two fixed helicopter routes, namely, Yanzi Lake Convention and Exhibition Center-Baoan Heliport and Yanzi Lake Convention and Exhibition Center-Futian Greater China. Also in March, the eVTOL cross-sea and cross-city demonstration flight between Shenzhen and Zhuhai took only 20 minutes.

on March 8, Xiaopeng huitian flying car completed the low-altitude flight in the CBD area of Guangzhou city. In October 2023, the EH216-S UAV developed by Yihang Intelligent in Guangzhou won the world's first eVTOL airworthiness certificate. According to the "Yangcheng Evening News", Guangzhou "air taxi" operators are expected to obtain the first batch of licenses in 2024 and enter commercial operations.

Chengdu Transportation Bureau said that Chengdu is vigorously developing "low altitude + cultural tourism", "low altitude + logistics", "low altitude + traffic", "low altitude + emergency" and other scenarios. This flight activity is an exploration and verification of low-altitude manned flight routes and their application scenarios, marking the smooth opening of the low-altitude manned flight navigation management chain and laying the foundation for future eVTOL commercial use.