When Chengdu's drone industry enters the "era of blooming flowers"

Have you ever dreamed of a scene where you can take a flying car to work without getting stuck in traffic or feeling sick? Now, this dream is about to come true.



On April 7th, the Civil Aviation Administration of China officially issued the first unmanned aerial vehicle production license in Guangzhou, Guangdong. As an important part of low altitude economic development, the drone industry, like the flying car industry, is increasingly valued by the industry.
In Chengdu, a complete drone industry chain system consisting of raw materials, basic components and systems, complete machine manufacturing and operation services has been formed. The industry chain has gathered more than 110 upstream and downstream enterprises, and products have achieved full coverage from 10 kilograms to tonnage levels. The revenue scale of the entire industry chain has exceeded 10 billion yuan. Civil drones have been applied in scenarios such as agriculture, public security, surveying and mapping, disaster relief, and even food delivery.
How far is Chengdu's drone industry from the era of blooming flowers? Recently, Chengdu Business Daily Red Star News reporters visited drone manufacturing enterprises, drone application enterprises, and others.

Saving costs for transporting drones

Manufacturing side launches "unmanned system"

Chengdu has the first national level unmanned aerial test zone in the southwest. As the core part of low altitude manufacturing, drones are the cornerstone industry that promotes the development of low altitude economy.

Entering the production factory of Chengdu Zongheng Automation Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Chengdu Zongheng"), the first thing to enter the field of vision is the display of several rows of industrial drones, such as several basically formed CW-25E and CW-40. The person in charge of Chengdu Zongheng stated that the company will participate in the World Drone Conference held in Shenzhen in May this year, and the exhibits include the new generation "Zongheng Kunlun Unmanned System".

He introduced that this unmanned system can achieve functions such as automatic inspection and charging of drones, effectively helping customers solve pain points in existing large-scale drone application scenarios. "The launch of unmanned systems has reduced the operational difficulty of drone systems while saving costs incurred in transporting drones."

Wang Liguang, Deputy General Manager of Chengdu Zongheng, stated that the company's drone products have been applied in multiple fields, such as terrain surveying, smart cities, and integrated real estate ownership confirmation. In addition, drones are widely used in various security industry scenarios due to their unique advantages in aerial monitoring and reconnaissance.

"2024 will become the first year of low altitude economic development, which will inevitably drive industrial drones into the era of intelligence." Wang Liguang said that during this period, the integration of drones with cutting-edge technologies such as cloud computing, big data, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence is increasing, which will unleash huge development potential and broad application prospects. Drones will become increasingly "smart".



Sichuan Aoshi Technology Co., Ltd., dedicated to the research and development, manufacturing, sales, and service of high-end drone equipment, was listed on the "First Batch of Chengdu Industrial Boutique List" in early 2024. The company's products include a series of high-end unmanned equipment systems, including vertical takeoff and landing fixed wing drones, short range takeoff and landing fixed wing drones, and intelligent autonomous mission small multi rotor drones.

"The Aoshi Production Base has multiple flexible production lines for drone products, integrating production, assembly, testing, and delivery, including supporting facilities such as the composite workshop, assembly workshop, painting workshop, and drone workshop." Liu Man, Marketing and Public Relations Director of Sichuan Aoshi Technology Co., Ltd., said that in a recent mountain fire rescue, the Aoshi XC-25 pure electric vertical fixed wing drone rushed to the front line as soon as possible, cooperating with the on-site command department to participate in the disaster relief work. Another XC-150 vertical fixed wing drone has recently completed beyond line of sight communication support, real-time detection, target locking and positioning, real-time 3D modeling, and automatic warning work in a single mission in a "high cold, high latitude" environment with high quality.

"These two models have also participated in the return support mission of China's Shenzhou manned spacecraft multiple times, completing support tasks such as survey and clearance, and regional surveillance," Liu Man said.

Focus on future unmanned flight "traffic regulations"

Explore the construction of airspace management systems and related infrastructure

The relevant person in charge of the New Economic Bureau of Tianfu New Area in Sichuan Province introduced that the new area is seizing opportunities for low altitude economic development, focusing on agricultural plant protection, power line patrol, disaster prevention and reduction, logistics transportation and other related application fields, exploring the construction of airspace management systems and related infrastructure, and creating pilot scenarios for low altitude economy. Strive to gather 25 key enterprises in the aerospace field by 2027, with a revenue scale exceeding 1 billion yuan.
In Tianfu New Area, Chengdu Huirong Guoke Microsystem Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Huirong Guoke") is committed to spectrum cognition, network detection, data application and other fields. Currently, it has formed spectrum perception and detection products represented by the "Huiyan" series of anti drone early warning detection radars and millimeter wave traffic radars.
"Low altitude economy is the trend of future development, and the widespread application of drones will be inevitable." Wang Zongfu, General Manager of Huirong Guoke, gave a vivid analogy to drone warning and detection radar. "Radar is like a 'sky eye' camera on the road, and the drones flying over us in the future must also comply with traffic rules. If a drone flies illegally, it must be detected by radar."
Wang Zongfu stated that the intelligent low altitude detection radar developed by the company can be applied to smart cities, low altitude control, unmanned aerial vehicle countermeasures, etc. "The electronic information manufacturing industry in Chengdu is very developed, and the next goal is to achieve mass production of the existing unmanned aerial vehicle warning detection radar, preparing in advance for the upcoming low altitude economic dividend period in Chengdu."

Facility network, communication network, route network, service network

Suggest the construction of the "four networks" of public infrastructure for low altitude flight

What are the shortcomings in the development of Chengdu's drone industry? Yang Junjie, a consultant at Zhongzhi Logistics Think Tank, stated in an interview with reporters that the airspace area for drone airworthiness test flights in Chengdu has expanded to 1652 square kilometers. However, compared with the airspace area of over 10000 square kilometers available for navigation in the Pearl River Delta region with a net height of 500 meters or more, the low altitude open airspace range is small, and the conditions for test flights are still insufficient. "At present, Chengdu's low altitude open airspace has a net height of less than 500 meters and is scattered. It has not yet been connected to adjacent cities' (prefectures') open airspace, and its infrastructure support capacity is still weak."

Yang Junjie also stated that the application scenarios of drones are more concentrated in product flight testing and low altitude tourism, with more homogenization. He suggested that Chengdu could build a "four network" of public infrastructure for low altitude drone flight - facility network, communication network, route network, and service network. "It is recommended to add or plan takeoff and landing points in existing new buildings, schools, and other existing facilities, and accelerate the supply of supporting facilities such as navigation, meteorology, energy, and communication data."

He said that it is also possible to explore logistics drones and manned aircraft eVTOL, and carry out application scenarios mainly focused on "low altitude logistics distribution" and "low altitude manned travel" to help cities achieve their "dual carbon" goals and alleviate urban traffic congestion. "It can promote the deep integration of universities, research institutes, Internet leading enterprises and the UAV industry, carry out a series of scientific research projects, promote the application of high-tech technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, 5G, satellite Internet in various scenarios of low altitude economy, and overcome technical difficulties."