China's New Economy

Low altitude. High tech. Higher profits.

So great is China’s dominance of drone technology that the US Army, ignoring its own ban, is buying DJI drones for Ukraine. That’s because Beijing’s drone dominance extends from palm-size, hobbyist UAVs to crop sprayers, to fifteen-ton, one-hundred fifty-foot wingspan Divine Eagle High Altitude Stealth-Hunting Drones that reads electronic signals from ships and aircraft long before they approach the mainland. 

But for most of us the action is below 10,000 feet, where millions of drones already photograph, explore, rescue, inspect, spray, relay signals and deliver urgent supplies. And dance..

It’s official

The low-altitude economy was written into this year's Government Work Report as a strategic emerging industry and several provinces are already building low-altitude industrial clusters to serve transportation, tourism, logistics, agriculture, geological surveying and mapping, public security and, increasingly, disaster relief.

The nascent industry hit $70 billion last year, up 34% on 2022, and on track for $150 billion in 2026, fueled by improved rules, clearer standards and regulations, tighter airspace management and airport construction. Of course, one of eVTOLs’s charms is not needing runways.

Packages from a few ounces to 150 lbs. can be sent and received from suburban driveways.

Then there’s human transportation, like e-Hang’s EH216-S. It’s a fully certified, mass produced, $400,000 eVTOL air taxi that can carry two passengers and luggage 20 miles at 80 mph.

Funded by $100 million from Hefei city, e-Hang is developing a low-altitude service ecosystem. Says e-Hang’s He Tianxing, “Our goal is low-altitude travel for ordinary citizens”.

Blue skies

The potential of the low-altitude economy may be broader than we anticipate: aircraft could transition from mass public conveyances to community – even individualized – transportation. China, with 30% of the global eVTOL market, 689 general aviation firms, 3,173 registered aircraft and 451 general aviation airports, plans to make the most of it.