As a new track emerging in recent years, the low-altitude economy is ushering in a "blue ocean" with a scale of trillions of RMB, and Shanghai, as the "No. 1 Civil Aviation City", undoubtedly has a first-mover advantage. During the low-altitude economic enterprise research trip organized by Shanghai Municipal Government Information Office and Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization on August 17th, we visited Shanghai Petrochemical Carbon Fiber Center, VERTAXI, Fengyu Shuntu, East China UAV Base and other sites. We learned that Shanghai is injecting new momentum and vitality into the development of low-altitude economic industries.
VERTAXI is an innovative air travel enterprise, which has been deeply involved in the field of small and medium-sized industrial eVTOL for years. The team has developed a variety of small and medium-sized industrial drones, which are widely used in public safety, infrastructure inspection and maintenance, marine inspection and emergency fire protection. In the field, its industrial drone brand, FCOURIER, is currently leading on the track. The M1 electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft independently developed by the company adopts a composite wing configuration scheme, has 20 rotors, has a maximum load of 700 kilograms, can carry 5 people, has a cruising speed of 200 kilometers per hour, and has a designed range of 250 kilometers. In the future, it will be mainly used to meet the demand of short-distance air travel within and between cities, shortening the transportation time of two or three hours to about 30 minutes. It is generally considered by the market as the best choice for "air taxis" in the future. It is reported that in October last year, the 2-ton eVTOL M1 independently developed by VERTAXI completed its maiden flight in Shanghai, becoming China's first independently developed and nationally produced 2-ton electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft.
During this research trip, we found that Jinshan District, relying on its own geographical advantages, is actively building a low-altitude intelligent logistics and transportation system around island seafood, city medical care, people's livelihood logistics and other scenarios. Through demonstration operations, we will promote flight entities to carry out various flight businesses, realize the deep integration of low-altitude operation services and low-altitude business services, make a blueprint plan for low-altitude infrastructure, software and hardware facilities, organizational structure and development goals, and strive to build Jinshan’s low-altitude industry into a business card with Shanghai characteristics.
