TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
China test-flies biggest cargo drone as low-altitude economy takes off
China flew its biggest-yet unmanned cargo aircraft designed for civilian use, as the world's top drone-making nation steps up test flights of autonomous aerial vehicles (UAVs) that could ultimately ferry everything from takeouts to people.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
FILE PHOTO: A Wing drone arrives with a delivery from Walgreens at the Frisco, Texas, US home of Tiffany Bokhari on Aug. 31, 2022. Wing, whose parent company is Alphabet Inc., is the first carrier certified by the US Federal Aviation Administration to operate a drone for delivery in major US metro areas, according to Jacob Demmitt, Wing's manager of marketing and communications. (AFP/Andy Jacobsohn)
C
hina flew its biggest-yet unmanned cargo aircraft designed for civilian use, as the world's top drone-making nation steps up test flights of autonomous aerial vehicles (UAVs) that could ultimately ferry everything from takeouts to people.
Packing a payload capacity of 2 metric tons, the twin-engine aircraft took off on Sunday on an inaugural flight, state media said, citing developer Sichuan Tengden Sci-tech Innovation Co., for a trip of about 20 minutes in southwestern Sichuan province.
China's civilian drone makers are testing larger payloads as the government pushes to build a low-altitude economy, with the aviation regulator seeing a 2-trillion-yuan (US$279-billion) industry by 2030, for a four-fold expansion from 2023.
The Tengden-built drone, with a wingspan of 16.1 m and a height of 4.6 m, is slightly larger than the world's most popular light aircraft, the four-seat Cessna 172.
The trial run followed the maiden flight in June of a cargo drone developed by state-owned Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC), the leading aerospace enterprise.
The AVIC's HH-100 has a payload capacity of 700 kilograms and a flight radius of 520 kilometers. Next year, AVIC plans to test its biggest cargo drone, the TP2000, which can carry up to 2 tons of cargo and fly four times farther than the HH-100.
China has already begun commercial deliveries by drone.
In May, cargo drone firm Phoenix Wings, part of delivery giant SF Express, started delivering fresh fruit from the island province of Hainan to southern Guangdong, using Fengzhou-90 drones developed by SF, a unit of S.F. Holding.
Cargo drones promise shorter delivery times and lower transport costs, Chinese industry insiders say, while widening deliveries to sites lacking conventional aviation facilities, such as rooftop spaces in heavily built-up cities.
They could also ferry people on taxi services.
In April, aviation authorities issued a production certificate to UAV maker EHang Holdings, based in the southern city of Guangzhou, for its passenger-carrying drone, China's first such document for an autonomous passenger drone.
In a report this year, the government identified the low-altitude economy as a new growth engine for the first time, with vertical mobility seen as a "new productive force" in areas such as passenger and cargo transport.
On Saturday, a manned commercial passenger helicopter took off for the first time from Kunshun, a city in Jiangsu province, headed for Shanghai Pudong Airport, about 100 km away, state media said.
For one-way fares of up to 1,800 yuan, Shanghai NewSky Heli Co aims to cut travel time between the cities to 20 minutes from several hours. As many as 30,000 passengers a year are forecast to use the route, which opens on Aug. 18.
Shanghai aims to expand low-altitude routes to cover other cities in the Yangtze River delta.
