China News Service, Nanchang, November 4 (Reporter Wu Pengquan) Six manned electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL), urban pipe network inspection drones, emergency rescue unmanned helicopters... A large number of low-altitude equipment was unveiled at the 2026 China Aviation Industry Conference and Nanchang Aviation Industry Expo held in Nanchang from October 31 to November 4. This aviation event reflects that the low-altitude economy is accelerating to "fly" into people's lives.
A manned eVTOL exhibited by Fengfei Aviation Technology, a low-altitude economic enterprise, attracted many audiences. The company's brand manager Jin Tingting told reporters that this six-seater model has a range of about 200 kilometers and is currently pursuing airworthiness certification. In the future, it can cover diverse air traffic scenarios such as intercity travel, medical rescue, and low-altitude cultural tourism. The company's freight version of the same model has completed certification and has been used in scenarios such as material transportation in Cangnan, Zhejiang, spring tea transportation in mountainous areas of Guizhou, and material supply for offshore drilling platforms in Shenzhen; "The company's products are also exported to overseas markets such as the Middle East, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia."
More and more new energy aircraft can achieve large-load, long-distance flights. Zhang Xinyuan, general manager of Beijing General Aviation Aircraft Co., Ltd., said that a 10-seat new energy aircraft developed by the company is driven by a parallel hybrid power system. It has a take-off weight of up to 8,000 kilograms and a maximum range of 3,500 kilometers. It is suitable for business travel, medical rescue and other application scenarios.
Technological progress continues to broaden the application boundaries of low-altitude equipment. Lu Chao, sales manager of Jiangxi Helicopter Co., Ltd., said that the blades of the JH-6 Sparrow UAV exhibited at this exhibition can be folded and stored, supporting handheld takeoff and landing and fully autonomous route planning. By replacing different mission load modules, it can be adapted to a variety of operating scenarios.
Fan Huitao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, pointed out that the low-altitude economy is profoundly reshaping the regional economic form, transportation system, and social production and lifestyle with its intelligent, green and inclusive transformation power, and is expected to become an industry leading the fourth wave of consumption.
According to predictions from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the size of China's low-altitude economic market is expected to exceed 3.5 trillion yuan in 2035. During the interview, the reporter learned that although the industry has broad room for growth, there are still many challenges from "flying" to "using".
Dong Zhiyi, chief expert on the low-altitude economy of the Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics, believes that the current development of the low-altitude economy faces problems such as a mismatch between the regulatory framework and the scale of low-altitude operations, lagging infrastructure construction, further coordination between airworthiness certification and product innovation, and insufficient supply of large-scale sustainable application scenarios. It is necessary to coordinate the layout of the national industrial chain and avoid homogeneous competition.
The low-altitude economy is accelerating the establishment of rules. The "Guidelines for the Construction of the Low-altitude Economic Standard System (2025 Edition)" jointly issued by 10 departments including the State Administration for Market Regulation of China clearly states that by 2027, the low-altitude economic standard system will be basically established; by 2030, there will be more than 300 standards in the low-altitude economic field.
Li Ming, a researcher at the China Academy of Space Technology, proposed that in response to the demand for low-altitude flight supervision and services, we should give full play to the advantages of aerospace technology and accelerate the construction of a low-altitude flight service system that integrates sky and ground, integrates communication, guidance and remote control, and connects the cloud and network to provide safe, real-time, accurate and intelligent low-altitude flight services for government regulatory agencies, flight service companies, and station operating companies.
With the rapid development of the industry, the demand gap for low-level talents continues to expand. "It is expected that the low-altitude industry will create more than 5 million direct and indirect jobs in 2026." Fan Huitao said that universities should be supported to establish interdisciplinary subjects such as "low-altitude technology and engineering" to cultivate professional talents; and expand the training scale of professionals such as pilots, operations and maintenance, air traffic control, and algorithm engineers. (over)
