Drone industry in Chongqing flying high

Three companies in the drone industry chain, led by three technical experts from Beihang University in Beijing, have helped start up an aerospace information industry in Chongqing's Jiangjin district in recent years.

Last month, an industrial-level heavy-load unmanned helicopter, designed by one of the three companies — Chongqing AirCamel Tech Co — won the top prize in the entrepreneurship group of the 7th China Aviation Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition Final, which was held in Xi'an, Shaanxi province.

The winner, together with two other science and technology companies in the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) chain — Chongqing Zixingzhe Tech Co and Chongqing CeWei Tech Co — have formed a leading industry cluster, said Xiong Pan, deputy director of Shuangfu Industrial Park in Jiangjin.

The AirCamel-600, an unmanned tandem helicopter, has a maximum takeoff weight of 600 kilograms, a maximum payload of more than 300 kilograms and a ceiling of 6,500 meters, according to Wang Qiang, AirCamel's president.

Wang graduated in 2014 with a PhD in aircraft design from Beihang University and chose to start a career in the southwestern municipality in 2019.

"It's like an airborne truck or camel, and so that's how we named the company," said Chen Xiang, a Tsinghua alumnus and vice-president of AirCamel. He added that the UAVs mainly serve civil heavy-load needs involving transportation to uncharted areas like plateaus, mountains or islands and support emergency fire rescue, land and resource exploration, forestry industries and scientific research experiments.

Chen said four AirCamel-600 helicopters, with the largest load ratio so far in the market, have been put into use. Several other companies and institutions across the country are on the company's waiting list.

The drone industry has been developing rapidly over the past 10 years, said Yang Jincai, chairman of the Shenzhen UAV Industry Association during an interview with China Economic News recently. He noted that China has a 74 percent share of the global market for consumer drones and has taken up 55 percent of the industrial-level drone market worldwide.

According to market research firm Frost & Sullivan, by 2024, the market for industrial drones will reach 150 billion yuan ($21.7 billion).