Hoover smoothly in the strong winds of level 8, and you can talk normally without headphones in the cabin. Real-time feedback on the dynamic positioning of centimeter-level accuracy... In the low-altitude economic exhibition area of Hall 1 of the 5th China International Consumer Products Expo, the "future traffic experience" brought by many low-altitude aircraft is eye-catching. With the concentrated appearance of many industry leaders, a change in low-altitude travel is moving from booths to reality.
At the Yihang Smart Booth, the unmanned manned eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft EH216-S with a complete "four certificates" of model certificates, production licenses, standard airworthiness certificates, and operation certificates have become the focus. At the end of March, its operating airline had just obtained the operation certificate issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, marking that this "air vehicle" that had completed its flight demonstration at the main venue officially entered the commercial operation stage.
"Pilots can clearly see the ground landscape while sitting in the cabin, but they can hardly hear noise." Wang Zhao, chief operating officer of Yihang Intelligent Equipment (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd., introduced that its cockpit adopts a noise reduction design, and passengers can talk in the cabin without barriers. The ground noise is extremely small when flying to a height of tens of meters. "This means that it can truly integrate into the low altitude of the city and become a 'flying taxi'."
eVTOL aircraft, known as a "flying car" or "air taxi", adopts a composite wing configuration that can take off and land vertically like a helicopter or cruise horizontally like a fixed-wing aircraft. Without traditional airports, flexible take-off and landing can be achieved, and is considered an important solution for urban air traffic in the future.
Outside the exhibition hall, a huge "bee" also attracted everyone to watch. As the largest single product at the main venue of this Consumer Expo, the 2-ton eVTOL aircraft brought by Fengfei Aviation Technology Co., Ltd. made its debut at the Consumer Expo. The aircraft is powered by pure electric power, with a maximum range of 250 kilometers and a cruising speed of 200 kilometers per hour. It has previously completed flight missions such as Shenzhen-Zhuhai cross-city cross-sea flight and cross-Yangtze River flight, and has also tested flights in countries and regions such as Japan and the Middle East.
"Our unmanned cargo version will be commercially delivered this year for material transportation, emergency rescue, emergency firefighting, etc.; the manned version will be completed next year to complete airworthiness evidence collection and will be put into pilot operations in scenarios such as sightseeing and point-to-point transportation." Sun Ming, senior vice president of Fengfei Aviation Technology Co., Ltd., said.
From the debut of the latest low-altitude flight products to the scene application display, from flight training demonstration to three-dimensional traffic control system exhibition, the low-altitude economic exhibition area established for the first time in this Consumer Expo fully demonstrates the collaborative innovation results of the low-altitude economic industrial chain.
As a new economic form, low-altitude economy is rapidly rising around the world and showing huge development potential. As the organizer of the Consumer Expo, Hainan has become an important experimental zone and demonstration zone for low-altitude economic development with its unique natural conditions, policy advantages and development needs.
In January this year, Hainan Flying Vehicle Demonstration Application Island was officially launched, and cooperated with Xiaopeng Huitian to jointly promote the application of flying cars in the province. At present, Xiaopeng Huitian has started verified practices for landing flight cars in Hainan, including flying tests and land-based urban road tests, and signed contracts for more than 40 flight camps to start the construction of flight camps all over the island. "Our goal is to make flying cars a new choice for personal travel," said Zhang Xuehui, public relations director of Guangdong Huitian Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd.
After sorting out the exploration and practices of various places, it can be seen that not only Hainan, but many places across the country have also written eVTOL air traffic into low-altitude economic policies and planned related routes. For example, Beijing proposes to establish eVTOL commuter routes between Daxing Airport and Xiongan New Area, Capital Airport and Tianjin, Langfang and other places; Inner Mongolia and other places plan and develop eVTOL air traffic areas; Guangdong proposes to create a low-altitude air traffic corridor covering the main areas of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area... Kuang Xianming, deputy director of the China (Hainan) Institute of Reform and Development, said that at present, my country's low-altitude economic field is at a relatively leading level in both technological development and scenario applications. As enterprises accelerate investment in low-altitude fields and localities accelerate the implementation of related projects, this field is expected to achieve accelerated development, making the picture of low-altitude travel a reality.
(Reporter Wu Maohui, Wang Yudian) Xinhua News Agency, Haikou, April 14
