By Ryan Wu
BEIJING (Reuters) – Engineers sent China’s largest cargo drone on a test run at the weekend, while a helicopter taxi set new milestones by flying a 100 km (62 mile) route in Shanghai. For the country’s expanding low-altitude economy.
With a carrying capacity of 2 metric tons, the twin-engine cargo drone developed by Sichuan Dengdan Science and Technology Innovation Institute took off in southwestern Sichuan province on Sunday, lasting about 20 minutes.
With a wingspan of 16.1 m (52.8 ft) and a height of 4.6 m (15 ft), the Tengton-built drone is slightly larger than the four-seat Cessna 172, the world’s most popular light aircraft.
Manufacturers in the world’s top drone-making country are testing large-scale payloads, while transport companies are planning manned and unmanned air taxi services as China eases airspace restrictions and offers incentives to create a low-altitude economy. Its aviation regulator expects a four-fold expansion from 2023 to a 2-trillion-yuan ($279-billion) industry by 2030.
The Dengton test flight in June followed the first flight of a cargo drone developed by state-owned Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC), a leading aerospace company.
AVIC’s HH-100 has a payload capacity of 700 kg (1,543 lb) and a flight radius of 520 km. Next year, AVIC plans to test its largest cargo drone, the TP2000, which will carry 2 tons of cargo and fly four times the range of the HH-100.
China has already started commercial deliveries by drone.
In May, cargo drone company Phoenix Wings, part of delivery company SF Express, began delivering fresh fruit from the island province of Hainan to southern Guangdong using Fengzhou-90 drones developed by SF, a division of SF Holding.
Cargo drones promise shorter delivery times and lower transportation costs, Chinese industry insiders say, while expanding deliveries to sites that lack conventional aerial facilities, such as rooftop spaces in heavily built-up cities.
They can pick up people in taxi services.
In April, aviation authorities granted EHang Holdings, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) maker based in the southern city of Guangzhou, a production certificate for its passenger drone.
In a report this year, the government identified the low-rise economy as a new growth engine for the first time, with vertical mobility seen as a „new productive force” in areas such as passenger and freight transport.
On Saturday, a manned commercial passenger helicopter took off for the first time from Kunshun city in Jiangsu province to Shanghai Pudong Airport, state media reported.
With a one-way fare of up to 1,800 yuan, Shanghai Newsky Heli Co aims to cut travel time between cities from several hours to 20 minutes. It is predicted that 30,000 passengers will use the route on August 18.
Shanghai aims to expand low-altitude routes to cover other cities in the Yangtze River Delta.
($1=7.1742 Chinese Yuan)
(Reporting by Ryan Wu; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Jacqueline Wong)
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