China's self-developed two-seater electric aircraft RX1E-A made its first flight over a scenic area in the Yanqing District of Beijing on Monday, marking a strong stride in boosting the city's low-altitude economy.
The RX1E-A type, an advanced version of the country's first electric plane RX1E, made its maiden flight in 2017 in northeast China's Shenyang.
The two-seat aircraft is classified as a light sport aircraft, which refers to small, lightweight planes that are easy to fly.
Since it received its type certificate from the Civil Aviation Administration of China in October 2018 and obtained its production license the following April, the RX1E-A has logged over 10,000 hours of safe flight.
The RX1E-A has a flight endurance of 150 minutes, and can be equipped with a parachute designed to safely bring down the entire aircraft in an emergency.
In addition, with a maximum flight distance of 240 kilometers, the aircraft can be used in pilot training, passenger transportation, tourism, and aerial photography.
With the future operation of the new electric aircraft, Yanqing District, a top holiday destination in Beijing, aims to boost its low-altitude economy through greater collaboration with industry leaders and the development of new application scenarios.
China self-developed electric aircraft powers low-altitude economy
China launched a Smart Dragon-3 carrier rocket, also known as Jielong-3, from the waters near the city of Haiyang in east China's Shandong Province on Tuesday, placing eight satellites into planned orbit.
The commercial rocket blasted off at 10:31 a.m. (Beijing Time), carrying satellites including Tianyi-41 and “Hong Kong Youth Sci-tech Innovation,” the first satellite developed by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).
The launch marks the 4th flight mission for the Smart Dragon-3 carrier rocket series.
Smart Dragon-3 commercial carrier rocket is developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
The four-stage solid-propellant Smart Dragon-3 rocket is a type of cost-effective and highly reliable launch vehicle that is mainly used for launching spacecraft to the sun-synchronous orbit or low Earth orbit, according to the developer.
"Our Jielong-3 rocket used the 'Oriental Maritime Space Port' offshore satellite launch vessel for the first time, which means stronger support and higher launch efficiency. We also used the large yaw technology to make our landing area safer, so that in the future, we will have different options according to the weight of the satellite, to make the launching more cost-saving," said Jin Xin, an engineer at the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
The "Hong Kong Youth Sci-tech Innovation" satellite is the first satellite funded and supported by the Innovation and Technology Commission of the HKSAR government. It is also the world's first science satellite using an AI large-model. It is equipped with a high-resolution optical remote sensing camera and high-performance computing power payload, realizing key technologies and functions such as high-resolution earth remote sensing observation, and on-orbit intelligent data processing.
"More than 90 percent of the satellite's research and development staff are young teachers, students and engineers, so it is named 'Hong Kong Youth Sci-tech Innovation.' We will carry out new technology verification such as on-orbit reasoning training of large AI models in orbit," said Guo Tao, chief designer of the satellite.
China's Smart Dragon-3 rocket sends eight satellites into orbit
China's Smart Dragon-3 rocket sends eight satellites into orbit
