China tested its biggest unmanned cargo aircraft to date — and it’s capable of carrying 4,400 pounds of load.
The plane completed its maiden flight on Sunday morning, which lasted about 20 minutes. The flight was conducted in Fengming General Aviation Airport in China’s southwestern Sichuan province, according to state media CCTV.
The new aircraft has a wingspan of 52.8 feet, around the width of an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
CCTV wrote in its report that “it is the largest and domestically produced large-scale unmanned transport aircraft currently developed in China.”
Developed by state-funded drone manufacturing company Sichuan Tengden Sci-tech Innovation Co, the new aircraft is a step forward in progressing the country’s “low-altitude economy.” This refers to economic activities that take place in airspace 0.6 miles above the earth’s surface, per the South China Morning Post.
Drones and flying taxis, which are categorized by the term unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are included in this “low altitude economy,” which is forecast to be worth $279 billion by 2030, per Reuters.
There were 1.87 million UAVs registered in China as of June this year, SCMP reported, citing data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
The new cargo plane test comes as China has already started commercial drone deliveries.
In April, the SCMP reported that drone company Phoenix Wings started a commercial cargo drone route to hasten deliveries of goods between Shenzhen and Zhongshan in southeastern China, a 43-mile stretch.
The low-cost delivery service is priced at $5.60 per order and can be completed within 45 minutes, cutting delivery time by nearly an hour, the outlet reported.
Meanwhile, helicopter taxis are becoming a thing in China. Reuters reported that a crewed commercial passenger helicopter took its maiden flight from Kunshun, a city in Jiangsu province, to Shanghai Pudong Airport on Saturday. It slashed travel time from several hours to just 20 minutes, per the outlet.
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