Industrial grade drones facing the wind? The world's first 6-ton tiltrotor aircraft has been launched

The popular eVTOL in the current market is limited by battery density and mainly focuses on short and medium range. To fully explore the scenario of air transportation systems, it cannot do without large tonnage and medium to long range aircraft as carriers.

In recent times, with the continuous promotion of favorable policies, the low altitude economy, as a strategic emerging industry, has ushered in new opportunities for development. As one of the key carriers of low altitude economy, drones have enormous potential for industrial application and have become a popular track for low altitude economy.

In the civilian unmanned aerial vehicle sector, due to its ability to significantly reduce costs and increase efficiency in the industrial field, the market share of industrial grade unmanned aerial vehicles is continuously increasing, becoming the main force of market growth. 2024 is also known as the "first year of industrial grade unmanned aerial vehicle explosion".

Recently, the world's first 6-ton tiltrotor aircraft developed by United Aircraft Group was officially assembled and produced in Wuhu, Anhui. The reporter learned from United Aircraft Group that the aircraft model is named "Lanthanide R6000", with a flight speed of 550km/h, a flight range of 4000 kilometers, a maximum payload of 2 tons, and a maximum ceiling of 7620 meters. It will become a powerful tool for cross provincial transportation and logistics. Policy activation of low altitude industry

Since the end of last year, the Central Economic Work Conference has officially listed "low altitude economy" as a strategic emerging industry. Subsequently, various regions have accelerated the introduction of low altitude economic industry layout plans, initiating a low altitude economic bottleneck war.

Han Jun, Deputy Director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, once stated at a press conference of the State Council Information Office that as a strategic emerging industry, the low altitude economy has a long industrial chain, covering various industries such as aircraft research and development, low altitude flight infrastructure construction and operation, and flight service support; The application scenarios are diverse, including both traditional general aviation formats and the integration of low altitude production services supported by drones. It has wide applications in industries, agriculture, service industries, and other fields.

The "Research Report on the Development of China's Low altitude Economy (2024)" released by the CCID Research Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shows that the scale of China's low altitude economy will reach 505.95 billion yuan in 2023, with a growth rate of 33.8%. It is expected that by 2026, the scale of China's low altitude economy is expected to exceed one trillion yuan. The Civil Aviation Administration of China estimates that the market size of the low altitude economy will reach 1.5 trillion yuan by 2025, and is expected to reach 3.5 trillion yuan by 2035, with a 10-year compound annual growth rate of 8.84%.

From the perspective of the industrial chain, the low altitude economy mainly includes the upstream flight infrastructure and support service, the midstream aircraft manufacturing end, and the downstream operational application end. At present, the market is more concerned about low altitude infrastructure and aircraft manufacturing. As a prerequisite for the launch of low altitude economy, they are becoming the focus of seizing the trillion dollar blue ocean market of low altitude economy.

On October 12th, Vice Minister of Finance Wang Dongwei stated at a press conference of the State Council Information Office that the Ministry of Finance will study expanding the scope of special bond use, providing reasonable support for forward-looking and strategic emerging industry infrastructure, and promoting the accelerated development of new quality productivity.

Galaxy Securities believes that as a new representative of high-quality productivity, the construction of low altitude infrastructure is expected to receive scale support from this special bond, and the development of the industry will ride the wind and have great potential. Industrial drones or leading development

Drones refer to aircraft managed by control stations, also known as remotely piloted aircraft. Drones can be divided into military drones and civilian drones based on their purposes, while civilian drones can be further subdivided into industrial drones and consumer drones.

The Toubao Research Institute predicts that by 2030, the size of China's civilian drone market will exceed 680 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 28.6%. The market size of industrial grade drones will exceed 480 billion yuan, while the market size of consumer grade drones will also exceed 200 billion yuan.

Zhang Shiyue, an industrial industry analyst at Toubao Research Institute, said, "With the expansion of the application scope of industrial grade drones, the market structure is gradually shifting from consumer grade drones to industrial grade drones, reflecting the increasing demand for efficient and professional drone solutions

For example, on October 16th, the Hong Kong SAR government also announced the establishment of a "Working Group for the Development of Low Altitude Economy". It is reported that Hong Kong plans to gradually expand and enrich the application scenarios of advanced air transportation systems from near to far, from light to heavy, starting from unmanned aerial vehicle cargo.

It is worth noting that the popular eVTOL in the current market is limited by battery density and mainly focuses on short - and medium range. To comprehensively explore the scenarios of air transportation systems, it cannot do without large tonnage, medium - and long-range aircraft as carriers.

The reporter learned from United Aircraft Group that based on different purposes such as carrying passengers and cargo, the Lanthanide R6000 produced this time has two configurations. Among them, the cargo hold space of the cargo type can meet the freight needs of most high-value products, achieve efficient long-distance delivery, and can also be applied in emergency rescue scenarios; The manned version can flexibly accommodate 4-10 people, serving for distribution and transportation, business, and family travel.

Tian Gangyin, Chairman and President of United Aircraft Group, said, "The key technology of the Lanthanide R6000 is independently controllable. It adopts a light transmission redundancy flight control system design, strong intelligent perception and analysis decision-making ability, and can operate in extreme environments and emergencies. It has safety functions such as anti icing, lightning strike resistance, and anti fall collision, and adopts standardized and automated manufacturing and assembly to improve economy