The huge blades "whistled" and rotated at high speed, the helicopter landed steadily on the ground, and pieces of medical supplies were immediately transported down...
Many friends who are concerned about the fight against the epidemic in Wuhan may remember this scene: when the fight against the new crown pneumonia epidemic was at its worst, two helicopters full of medical supplies landed at the Xinhua Road Stadium, which solved the urgent need for many hospitals that urgently needed medical supplies for epidemic prevention.
At that time, Wuhan was in the "lockdown" period, and many citizens who were "isolated" at home saw this scene through the Internet, and some were moved to tears.
What is less known is that this batch of medical supplies that have traveled thousands of miles to help comes from Shenzhen. Undertaking the air transport task is Shenzhen Eastern General Aviation Co., Ltd.
From Shenzhen to Wuhan, road transport takes at least 13 hours. The air flight time is only 6 hours. Although many people are unfamiliar with the general aviation industry, they are impressed by the excellent performance of helicopters in medical rescue!
The general aviation industry has been included in China's emerging strategic industries, but compared with developed countries, China's low-altitude economy is still relatively backward.
Zhao Qi, an alumnus of Tsinghua University and chairman of Shenzhen Eastern General Aviation Co., Ltd., said, "China's general aviation industry will soon form a trillion-level low-altitude economic market, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area will once again be at the forefront." ”
General aviation is relatively new to many people. Tsinghua alumnus Zhao Qi has nearly 10 years of helicopter flying experience, and in 2017, he and his partners founded Shenzhen Eastern General Aviation Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Eastern General Aviation). The original intention of this move is to "make a contribution to China's aviation industry".
General aviation and transport aviation together constitute the "two wings" of the civil air transport system. Compared with the rapid development of transport aviation, general aviation has become a short board in the industry. The Civil Aviation Administration of China proposed the "two wings" strategy of general aviation and transport aviation.
Since 2010, the state has issued the "Opinions on Deepening the Reform of China's Low-altitude Airspace Management" and "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of the General Aviation Industry" to promote the development of the general aviation industry.
Eastern General Aviation is a pilot unit of low-altitude reform identified by the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the Shenzhen Municipal Government, a cross-border flight permit enterprise of China No. 001 Guangdong-Hong Kong helicopter, a support enterprise supported by the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission and a Class-A public transport aviation enterprise, and also a major low-altitude general aviation operator and helicopter service provider in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
An introductory document says: The company... Its core businesses cover emergency rescue, short-haul transportation, air excursions, flight license training, helicopter sales, hosting and financial services, urban air transportation (UAM), etc.
I'm curious about an airline's mission vision.
The company's corporate culture is "safe, efficient, innovative, win-win, dedication", to explore low-altitude flight reform, innovative helicopter development model, build a helicopter ecosystem as its mission, is committed to expanding the boundaries of urban helicopter transport services, building a strategic platform for thousands of helicopters, creating a rapid air traffic network in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Yangtze River Delta, the Beijing-Tianjin wing urban agglomeration, and realizing a 15-minute economic life circle of the urban agglomeration.
Relevant national policies are becoming clearer:
On November 5, 2018, the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the Guangdong Provincial Government signed the Framework Agreement on Promoting the High-quality Development Strategy of Civil Aviation in Guangdong.
On February 18, 2019, the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council proposed to "steadily develop cross-border helicopter services and build a comprehensive demonstration zone for the general aviation industry in Shenzhen and Zhuhai".
As a pilot unit of low-altitude reform recognized by the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the Shenzhen Municipal Government, Eastern Airlines shoulders the responsibility and mission of "first-come and first-possible general aviation development".
Eastern General Aviation takes shenzhen Maluanshan general aviation complex as its headquarters base, and lays out a low-altitude operation network in the Greater Bay Area;
The construction of the Suzhou base has been completed in the Yangtze River Delta, and the operation has been carried out at Shanghai Longhua Airport to provide services for low-altitude operations in the Yangtze River Delta.
The Maluanshan General Aviation Complex built by Eastern General Aviation is the first comprehensive support base for the development of general aviation in Shenzhen. It will build a low-altitude transportation core hub centered on the Maluan mountain base and Bao'an Airport, radiating the urban agglomeration of the Greater Bay Area.
The Maluan Mountain Navigation Operation Base, which was officially put into operation on September 5, has a construction land area of 6013.74 square meters and a construction area of 4197.95 square meters.
With a helicopter fleet of Airbus, Bell and Agusta series, Eastern General Aviation has realized the connection from Shenzhen Bao'an Airport, Zhuhai Jiuzhou Airport and Guangzhou Baiyun Airport to various tourist attractions in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, golf clubs, CBD in the downtown area, Grade A office apron, and private villa apron.
In June 2019, Eastern General Aviation obtained the Flight Permit License for Guangdong and Hong Kong No. 001 in China, achieving the first flight between Guangdong and Hong Kong.
At 8:45 a.m. on June 28, an Airbus H135 helicopter took off from Shenzhen Bao'an Airport. About 15 minutes later, the helicopter landed firmly at Hong Kong's Shun Tak Heliport.
This marked the first successful cross-border helicopter flight between Guangdong and Hong Kong in China.
Industry experts said that cross-border helicopter flight is a strategic need for the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is one of the most open and economically dynamic regions in China, and there is a huge market demand for the cross-border helicopter flight market.
Executives of large enterprises such as Huawei, Tencent, and Foxconn, which are headquartered in Shenzhen, have business travel needs, and the demand for traveling from Shenzhen to Hong Kong is very large. It is estimated that it takes at least 90 minutes for Shenzhen to travel to and from Hong Kong by land, while it takes only 10 minutes for helicopters to fly across borders.
Cross-border helicopter connectivity between Guangdong and Hong Kong will greatly improve the efficiency of enterprises in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Its long-term value lies in "promoting the interconnection of the Greater Bay Area and jointly building a high-quality economic life circle that is livable, workable and tourist-friendly".
Cross-border helicopter flights between Guangdong and Hong Kong also play a major role: aviation emergency rescue.
Cross-border helicopter aviation emergency medical care can provide efficient medical protection services for Mainland residents and Hong Kong residents working and living in the Mainland.
Correspondingly, this also opens up new opportunities for low-altitude tourism. As we all know, Shenzhen and Hong Kong have unique landscapes of mountains and seas. Imagine what a beautiful experience it would be to fly low from Shenzhen Bay to Victoria Harbour.
Zhao Qi said that Eastern General Aviation is committed to promoting low-altitude transportation in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
In the next five years, the company will build a strategic platform of 1,000 helicopters, build an air corridor with Shenzhen as the center, with a radius of 500 kilometers, and form a rapid transportation network with other cities. This three-dimensional transportation system connecting sea, land and air in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area will build a 15-minute economic life circle in the Greater Bay Area.
Shenzhen is a national general aviation industry demonstration zone and a pilot project for the reform of national general aviation classification management. In the future, the city will accelerate the planning and construction of a number of general aviation ground facilities such as helicopter take-off and landing points. At the same time, we will promote the development of cross-border helicopter services such as the Shekou cruise home port with port functions.
In March this year, Shenzhen opened an air connection route from the airport to the city. This is also the first "civil aviation passenger + helicopter" connection route in China.
From Shenzhen Bao'an Airport to Futian Central Business District (CBD), passengers can arrive in just 10 minutes by helicopter. Along the way, passengers can also see a number of landmarks and attractions, and enjoy the cityscape along the way.
After the connection route is jointly launched by China Southern Airlines and Eastern General Aviation, passengers can enjoy the "one-stop" transportation service of civil aviation passenger aircraft and helicopter passengers from Beijing Daxing Airport to Shenzhen Greater China Heliport.
Citizens vividly call it one-stop intermodal transport "air taxi".
Zhao Qi alumni introduced that Shenzhen Bao'an Airport has set up a base of Eastern General Aviation Bao'an Airport. It can combine general aviation short-distance transportation with transportation aviation and traditional ground transportation to form a rapid three-dimensional transportation network.
At present, the combined ticket between China Southern Airlines and Eastern General Aviation has been sold on the official website app and WeChat public account of China Southern Airlines. In the next step, passengers can also purchase connecting tickets to Shanghai, Chengdu and other places.
As for the highest price that passengers are most worried about, the next step will be alleviated.
In the future, through the digital operation platform to achieve the sharing of scheduled flights, increase the subsidy for flights, the overall cost of helicopter and air passenger aircraft intermodal transportation will be reduced to about 8-10 times of ground transportation.
Zhao Qi alumni said, "We will build a helicopter 'air taxi' and achieve a significant reduction in ticket prices within 2 years." Taking Futian taxi to the airport for more than 100 yuan as a reference, the helicopter price is about 1,000 yuan. ”
Helicopter rescue is an indispensable and important part of the modern urban emergency response system.
The Airbus 135 twin-engine helicopter is an internationally used medical operation configuration helicopter, known as the "Aerial ICU", which can provide emergency injury treatment and patient transfer.
Eastern General Aviation has successfully transported two patients using twin-engine helicopters, who are in urgent need of rescue due to a sudden car accident. If the wounded are transported by ground transportation, the straight-line distance between Heyuan and Shenzhen is more than 260 kilometers, and it takes more than 3 hours to drive.
At the time of the incident, it was the peak period of the return journey of the Spring Festival, and the ground transfer time may take longer. More importantly, long bumps in the road can cause secondary injuries to the injured person. Eastern Airlines used a helicopter to transport the wounded, and it took only 76 minutes to transport them from Heyuan, Guangdong Province, to the Shenzhen Hospital of Southern Medical University.
In addition, the helicopter also has the function of aerial reconnaissance imaging exploration, whether it is anti-terrorism emergency, emergency rescue, forestry, power disaster pre-protection, large-scale activity support, search and arrest, search and rescue scenes, or the implementation of normalized inspection and corresponding prevention methods.
China's general aviation industry is ushering in a period of rapid development, and there is even an opportunity for "overtaking in curves".
In September this year, Eastern General Aviation and EHang reached a strategic partnership.
The two sides announced the establishment of a pilot project for urban air traffic integration airspace operation in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and explored and further implemented the urban air traffic (UAM) operation mode of helicopters and autonomous vehicles in designated integrated airspace.
This collaboration is more imaginative.
For example, develop a low-altitude urban air traffic operation management system to explore specific urban air traffic use cases, including air emergency rescue for ground traffic and air logistics transportation over highway networks.
The two parties will strive to build a UAM urban air traffic system that integrates intelligent drone piloting, digital air traffic management, green environmental protection and low noise, and a safe and comfortable passenger experience. In this way, it promotes the development of the aviation industry in the direction of intelligence, digitalization, networking and green environmental protection, and creates a series of new industries and consumption scenarios.
The goal of cooperation is not low - "strive to form a forward-looking, advanced, leading and iconic demonstration effect in China".
Zhao Qi introduced that Eastern General Aviation and EHang Intelligence have several keywords worth looking forward to. They are: autonomous vehicles, manned autonomous vehicles...
Although the aircraft are good, there is a shortage of pilots.
Zhao Qi took the helm of Dudong General Aviation to carry out helicopter driver's license training business.
According to statistics, there are only a few thousand active flight personnel in China's general aviation. There are more than 600,000 general aviation pilots in the United States. There is a serious shortage of mature pilots in China's general aviation, which has become one of the main bottlenecks restricting the development of general aviation in China.
Zhao Qi decided to carry out helicopter driver's license training to fill the gap in the market.
Helicopter driver's license training is difficult and the threshold is high. In recent years, the Civil Aviation Administration has relaxed the standards for general aviation flight license applicants in the three aspects of theoretical examination, practical examination and physical examination. This makes it possible for more people to realize their flying dreams.