On a sunny afternoon in late November, hundreds of onlookers gathered beside a picturesque lake near Shanghai as a massive silver drone lifted off silently from the deck of a cutting-edge vessel, marking the dawn of a new chapter for the low-altitude economy in both mainland China and Hong Kong.
The demonstration at Dianshan Lake, which straddles the border between Shanghai and Suzhou, felt like a scene from a science fiction film as the “Sunship”, a mobile water-based vertiport, made its global debut.
A vertiport is a specialised platform for electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.
Designed by AutoFlight, the Sunship aims to solve one of urban air mobility’s toughest challenges: finding places to take off and land in densely built-up cities.
The eVTOL aircraft that lifted off from the mobile floating platform was also developed by the Shanghai-based company, a leading manufacturer of electric aerial vehicles.
Powered entirely by electricity, AutoFlight’s aircraft can hover like a helicopter before transitioning to efficient, wing-borne flight like an aeroplane.
Unlike traditional drones, they are designed to carry heavy cargo or passengers, offering a quieter, greener and more cost-effective alternative to helicopters – all without relying on fossil fuels.
