An amphibian UFO-like flying disk developed by Shenzhen UFO Flying Saucer Technology Co. Ltd. takes a test flight at Shenzhen Talent Park in Nanshan District on June 3. Courtesy of the company
Have you ever seen extraterrestrial aliens coming to Earth on a UFO?
This question has perplexed researchers for decades and still remains unanswered. However, a research team from Shenzhen UFO Flying Saucer Technology Co. Ltd. definitely stunned the audience when its amphibian UFO-like flying disk, which the company said was the first of its kind in the world, had a test run in Nanshan District.
Taking off and landing on land and water at Shenzhen Talent Park on June 3, the test flight showed the culmination of three years’ work of the company on electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) technologies.
During the 15-minute flight, the aircraft reached an altitude of 200 meters with a maximum speed of 50 kilometers per hour. According to the company, the eVTOL aircraft will be used for urban tourism.
New entrants
There has been an increasing range of new aviation activities occupying low-altitude airspace, typically at and below 1,000 meters above ground level, in urban or suburban environments, such as the operation of “flying taxis” and small unmanned aircraft (UA), commonly known as drones.
Lilium, the German developer of the world’s first eVTOL jet, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bao’an District Government on June 19 to set up its China headquarters in Bao’an.
On the same day, the company signed an agreement with Shenzhen Eastern Heli-Eastern, a major low-altitude general aviation carrier and helicopter service provider in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). Under the agreement, Heli-Eastern will order 100 Lilium jets and partner with Lilium to identify potential sites and partners for Lilium’s vertiports and other ground infrastructure. Heli-Eastern will operate the aircraft in the region and provide crewing and maintenance services.
Heli-Eastern’s latest move followed the launch of its new helicopter services in March, which link Yanzi Lake International Convention and Exhibition Center in Pingshan with Bao’an Helicopter Airport and Great China International Exchange Square in Futian District. Trips to the two locations in Bao’an and Futian take 20 and 13 minutes, respectively.
Spotlight on UAVs
Wider application scenarios of low-altitude economy have been seen in Shenzhen, with food delivery giant Meituan’s drone deliveries and SF Express’ logistics distribution.
Meituan, which started drone deliveries in 2017, has deployed hundreds of drones flying on 11 routes to 18 dense urban neighborhoods and office buildings in Shenzhen. According to a report from the MIT Technology Review in May, Meituan made over 100,000 drone deliveries in the city in 2022.
During the pandemic, the Luohu Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital used drones to carry nucleic acid samples to its medical testing center in Longgang District. The 13.5-kilometer trip took only 13 minutes.
New market
Though the economic scale of the low-altitude economy is still rather small, it is still untapped and unscathed by competition, Shen Xiangyang, founding director of the GBA Digital Economy Research Institute, said at the 2023 Artificial Intelligence and Robotics International Symposium earlier this month.
“To develop the low-altitude economy, we need to build a Smart Integrated Low Airspace System (SILAS), a smart, integrated operation system that supports and manages aerial vehicles flying in complicated situations. It needs involvement of governments, industry associations, companies and research institutes,” Shen said, adding it still had a long way to go.
Shenzhen was approved by the civil aviation administration as a pilot area of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) aviation last year.
It is home to over 1,200 UAV manufacturers including DJI and SF Technologies. Its industrial drones take up about 60% of the domestic market, while its UAV exports account for 90% the country’s total, according to the 2022 China International Forum on Civil Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Development held in Changchun, capital of Northeast China’s Jilin Province, in August.