In recent years, low-altitude economy has shown explosive growth in China. According to the latest data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, in the first half of this year, the number of newly registered drones in China was nearly 0.608 million, a year-on-year increase of 48%, with a cumulative flying time of 9.816 million hours.

Recently, reporters from the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily participated in the research group on the low-altitude economy industry organized by the Shanghai Economic and Information Commission and the Shanghai Municipal Government Press Office, visiting Shanghai Petrochemical Carbon Fiber Center, Fengyu Shuntu, East China Drone Base, and Yufeng Future.

Drones have achieved cold chain transportation of goods and pharmaceuticals.

When the Fengzhou 90 drone carries a cargo of 10 kilograms, it can travel 120 kilometers. Sun Biao, the person in charge of Fengyu Shuntu Shanghai, mentioned to reporters from the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, "The company is involved in the construction of the Shanghai Jinshan Civil Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Test Zone, and has built a drone logistics island scene between Shanghai and Zhoushan. In the future, it will provide efficient and convenient express delivery and fresh cold chain transportation services for the people of Shanghai."

As shown in the above figure, after the drone flew over the sea, it brought back goods such as Zhoushan seafood and Peach Blossom Island yellow croaker.

Fengyu Shuntu is a subsidiary of SF focusing on the construction of low-altitude intelligent networks. The logistics drones developed by the company have a transportation capacity ranging from 10 kilograms to 50 kilograms and a range of 10 kilometers to 130 kilometers, covering multiple rotor and vertical takeoff and landing fixed-wing models. In January of this year, Fengyu Shuntu obtained the first nationwide "civil unmanned aerial vehicle operation qualification certificate."

As of June 30, 2024, Fengyi drones have opened more than 400 routes nationwide, with a cumulative flight of nearly one million flights, transporting more than 4.2 million items, and a total flying distance of nearly 5 million kilometers.

In May of this year, Feng Yu Shun Tu completed the first flight verification from the East China drone base to Longhua Airport. 'Currently, the Fengzhou 90 drone has achieved normalized operation with 10 flights per day and 50 flights per week, used for fresh cold chain transportation between the Zhoushan Islands and Jinshan, Shanghai,' said Sun Biao, the person in charge of Feng Yu Shun Tu Shanghai, to the 'Star Daily' reporter.

In addition to transporting seafood and other goods, drones will soon be able to deliver medicine, luggage, and documents. Sun Biao revealed that in July of this year, Feng Yu Shun Tu opened the first cross-river drone delivery route for medicine in Shanghai, which can achieve fast cross-river transportation of blood products and emergency medicines, with the entire route being 8 kilometers and drone delivery taking only minutes.

Accelerating the commercialization of low-altitude economy.

The scenarios of drones delivering medicines and transporting seafood mentioned above are one of the main application directions of the low-altitude economy.

The low-altitude economy refers to the comprehensive economic form of integrated development driven by low-altitude aviation activities using low-altitude aircraft as carriers below 1000 meters, extending to the airspace up to 3000 meters as needed, involving low-altitude flight activities such as manned, cargo, and other operations.

Drones are widely used in areas such as logistics, agriculture, and surveying, significantly improving industry efficiency. With continuous technological advancements and ongoing optimization of policy environment, the low-altitude economy is ushering in unprecedented development opportunities.

In July of this year, the Shanghai Municipal Government Office issued the 'Shanghai Low-Altitude Economy Industry High-Quality Development Action Plan (2024-2027)', proposing by 2027, Shanghai will establish a complete industry system for research and development, design, manufacturing, airworthiness testing, and commercial applications of new types of low-altitude aircraft, to build a high ground for innovation, commercial applications, and operational services in the low-altitude economy industry, with a core industry scale exceeding 50 billion yuan.

According to the Shanghai Economic and Information Technology Commission, Shanghai has 70% of the country's civilian aviation system professional talents, has gathered approximately 50% of the country's top eVTOL innovation enterprises, approved as the first national civil unmanned aerial test area, and has various application scenarios including scene logistics transportation in Jinshan 'Sea-Coast-City,' urban low-altitude smart logistics distribution in Yangpu, drone cluster performances in Xuhui Riverside, and inter-city low-altitude passenger operations in the Yangtze River Delta region.

In this survey, the reporter of the 'Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily' also visited the East China Drone Base. Xu Jinmei, Deputy General Manager of Shanghai Xinjinshan Century Aviation Development Co., Ltd. and Deputy General Manager of Shanghai Aerospace Navigation Entrepreneurship Incubator Co., Ltd., mentioned to the reporter of the 'Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily' that the East China Drone Base has a 1370 square kilometer airspace, and has obtained approval for 8 drone logistics routes, including Jinshan - Zhoushan, Jinshan - Huaniao Island, Jinshan - Shengsi Island, Jinshan - Longhua Airport, as well as a 1 square kilometer onshore test flight landing site.

Currently, the East China Drone Base has introduced a total of about 38 companies in various types of drone industry chains, including manufacturing, applications, materials, etc., with a planned total investment of 3.33 billion yuan.

Carbon fiber as the 'skeleton' of drones

'Carbon fiber is suitable for the structural manufacture of drones. Its strength is 7 times that of ordinary steel, but its weight is only 1/7 to 1/9 of steel, which can meet the lightweight, small size, and high stability requirements of drones,' said Li Peng, General Manager of the Carbon Fiber Division of Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical to the reporter of the 'Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily'.

It is reported that carbon fiber composite materials have excellent properties such as light weight, high strength, high stiffness, fatigue resistance, and low thermal expansion coefficient. Currently, advanced composite materials, mainly carbon fiber composite materials, account for 60% to 80% of the total structural mass of drones, reducing the weight of the aircraft by more than 25%.

During this survey, Yue Tingting, Vice President of Yufeng Future, told the reporter of the 'Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily' that the company's eVTOL aircraft uses domestically produced carbon fiber composite materials.

Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical is a subsidiary of Sinopec Corp and is an important carbon fiber industry base in China. It is also the first company in China to achieve industrialization of 48K large tow carbon fiber technology.

During the survey, the reporter of the 'Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily' also learned that Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical has independently developed unique domestic sodium thiocyanate wet process technology and carbon fiber complete set of technologies with independent intellectual property rights in the construction of small tow carbon fiber projects. In the construction of large tow carbon fiber projects, it has independently developed a customized production line from equipment to process, and has implemented the full process and full equipment DCS control technology, achieving automation in operations such as simple fiber loading.

Currently, Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical has a production capacity of 1500 tons/year for small tow carbon fiber and 6000 tons/year for large tow carbon fiber. "We are working on expanding production capacity. The first phase of investment is expected to create 6000 tons of carbon fiber production capacity, and the second phase will have another 6000 tons of carbon fiber production capacity," revealed Li Peng, General Manager of the Carbon Fiber Business Unit of Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical.

In recent years, with the development of domestic carbon fiber and its composite materials, the production cost of the fiber is lower, and the processing efficiency of composite products is higher, highlighting its economic advantages. Li Peng stated that the commercial production of carbon fiber composite material body or components for drones is expected to promote the further development of China's low-altitude economic industry.