Yesterday afternoon, a roundtable meeting on the aerospace aviation and low-altitude economy industries, coupled with a platform connection event hosted by the Beijing Institute of Technology's Yangtze River Delta Research Institute, commenced with fervor. This gathering, facilitated by the Jiaxing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology and starring enterprises, university research institutes, and investment institutions, revealed a city's ambition to capture opportunities in strategic emerging industries.
When mentioning Jiaxing's aerospace sector, many immediately think of Landspace. However, at the event, more unfamiliar yet brilliant names entered the spotlight.
"We relocated from Beijing to Jiaxing in 2023 and have already connected with local enterprises. Our company is currently in an accelerated financing phase," said Kong Lingde, CFO of Starspace (Jiaxing) Technology Co., Ltd., drawing immediate attention. "We can communicate more later; our businesses are highly compatible," Jiaxing Jiali Electronics Co., Ltd. promptly extended an olive branch.
In the high-end UAV optics field, Jiaxing companies are also securing high ground. "The UAV lenses we custom-manufactured for DJI have already secured the national first-of-its-kind certification," shared Wang Yan, Public Relations Manager at Zhongrun Optics, with pride in her tone while discussing this with supply chain partners.
In reality, such hardcore enterprises are rapidly assembling in Jiaxing. The city has already gathered a batch of key enterprises like Landspace, Jiali Electronics, and Zhongrun Optics, while also seeing the emergence of high-growth, innovative newcomers such as Starspace, Tianxu Aviation, and Zhongchuang Aviation. These companies delve deep into niche sectors, focus on core technological innovation, and have achieved breakthroughs in key technologies across areas like commercial satellite constellation networking and ground terminals, industrial-grade and inspection-type UAV R&D, and aerospace precision component manufacturing. They have formed differentiated competitive advantages, not only filling gaps in multiple segments of Jiaxing's industrial chain but also becoming a vital force propelling the accelerated growth of the industrial cluster.
One of the key themes of this connection event was the "pilot-scale platform," a crucial hub bridging the "last mile" of transforming scientific and technological achievements into marketable products.
"A large number of laboratory innovations are stuck in the gap between 'prototype' and 'product' due to a lack of pilot-scale verification. This 'valley of death' is too difficult to cross," multiple enterprises coincidentally expressed this pain point during the meeting.
"What we aim to do is build the critical bridge across the 'valley of death'," stated Zhang Wangwang, head of the pilot-scale platform at the Beijing Institute of Technology's Yangtze River Delta Research Institute.
He explained that the institute's low-altitude equipment design, manufacturing, and testing pilot-scale platform focuses on composite material component manufacturing and low-altitude equipment power system integration and verification. Through engineering validation, process improvement, and system integration, it accelerates technological maturity, providing an "incubator" and "accelerator" for innovations to reach the market.
"Low-altitude equipment technology is rapidly developing towards intelligence, lightweight design, and integration, with continuous breakthroughs in new materials and processes. However, without the engineering validation and process improvement from the pilot-scale stage, technological maturity is hard to achieve," Zhang Wangwang stated frankly.
Naturally, industrial rise also relies on capital support. "The commercial aerospace industry chain centers on satellite manufacturing and rocket launch, extending to downstream applications and ground control; the aviation industry chain spans from R&D design and key materials to complete aircraft manufacturing, operations, and maintenance," explained Xie Yao, head of the Investment Management Department at Jiaxing Changtou Group, outlining the group's current investment focus in aerospace aviation and the low-altitude economy. He expressed the intent to leverage capital to ensure promising projects are not short of funds and good enterprises can grow rapidly.
"We hope that through policy interpretation, technology roadshows, platform demonstrations, and capital empowerment, we can genuinely accelerate the synergistic innovation chain involving government, industry, academia, research, and finance. This is the significance of this connection event," said a relevant official from the Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology.
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