Innovation pushing low-altitude aircraft to new heights in China

A visitor views an unmanned firefighting helicopter during the 2024 Chengdu International Low-altitude Equipment and Services Expo, which opened on Thursday in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. "Low-altitude digital economy, rather than low-altitude transport and logistics, will probably be the main business form and growth point of low-altitude economy in the next five to 10 years," he said. Cheng Chengqi, a Peking University professor and a member of China's air traffic management advisory committee, proposed to build a low-altitude three-dimensional traffic signal system to empower low-altitude traffic management and safe navigation. Similar to how we use car navigation systems, once the start and end points are set, this system can plan feasible flight routes for low-altitude aircraft, he said. The market scale of China's low-altitude economy reached 505.95 billion yuan in 2023, up 33.8 percent year-on-year, and is projected to surpass 1 trillion yuan in 2026, according to a report by market research institute CCID Consulting.