China Tests the Largest Freight Drone and Opens a New Air Taxi Route.
Over the weekend, engineers tested China’s largest freight drone to date, while a helicopter taxi flew across a soon-to-open 100-kilometer (62-mile) route to Shanghai, setting new milestones for the country’s growing low-altitude industry.
The twin-engine cargo drone manufactured by state-funded Sichuan Tengden Sci-tech Innovation Co., with a payload capacity of 2 metric tons, took off in southern Sichuan province on Sunday for its first flight, which lasted around 20 minutes, according to official media.
The Tengden-built drone has a wingspan of 16.1 m (52.8 ft) and a height of 4.6 m (15 ft), making it somewhat larger than the four-seat Cessna 172, the world’s most popular light aircraft.
Manufacturers in the world’s leading drone-producing country are testing even greater payloads, while transportation companies are contemplating manned and unmanned air taxi services as China relaxes airspace restrictions and offers incentives to develop a low-altitude economy. Its aviation regulator predicts a 2-trillion-yuan ($279-billion) market by 2030, representing a fourfold increase from 2023.
The Tengden testing run came after a cargo drone manufactured by the state-owned Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC), the country’s top aerospace company, flew for the first time in June.
The AVIC HH-100 has a cargo capacity of 700 kg (1,543 pounds) and a flight radius of 520 kilometres. Next year, AVIC intends to test its largest cargo drone, the TP2000, which can carry up to 2 tons of cargo and fly four times as far as the HH-100.
China has already started making commercial deliveries via drone.
In May, freight drone startup Phoenix Wings, part of transportation giant SF Express, began delivering fresh fruit from the island province of Hainan to southern Guangdong using Fengzhou-90 drones built by SF, a unit of S.F. Holding (002352.SZ).
Cargo drones, according to Chinese industry experts, promise quicker delivery times and reduced transportation costs while expanding deliveries to areas without conventional aviation facilities, such as rooftop spaces in densely populated cities.
They could also transport passengers via taxi services.
In April, aviation officials gave a production certificate to unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) manufacturer EHang Holdings (EH.O.), based in the southern city of Guangzhou, for its passenger-carrying drone, China’s first certification for an autonomous passenger drone.
For the first time this year, the government classified the low-altitude economy as a new development engine, with vertical mobility viewed as a “new productive force” in areas such as passenger and cargo transport.
On Saturday, a manned commercial passenger helicopter flew for the first time from Kunshun, a city in Jiangsu province, to Shanghai Pudong Airport, the official media reported.
For one-way rates of up to 1,800 yuan, Shanghai NewSky Heli Co. hopes to reduce travel time between cities from several hours to 20 minutes. The line, which launches on August 18, is expected to carry up to 30,000 passengers annually.
Shanghai intends to construct low-altitude links to connect other cities in the Yangtze River delta.
