There will be a chat with teacher He Zhiqing this afternoon. Welcome to join.
Technological innovation-driven efforts are to explore and discover the latest scientific and technological achievements through active scientific practice and lead their applications to realize their extensive social value. In modern times, China, as a post-developing country striving to catch up with advanced countries, has transitioned from a development stage of learning and imitation from the world's advanced countries to a development stage of active exploration and independent innovation. In the future, we will have to bear as many risks as the world's leading countries in the field of scientific and technological exploration and new technology application. In many frontier fields, we will even have to bear more challenges than the current advanced countries.
With the steam engine as the core driving force through ships and trains, Europe became the center of the world. Cars with internal combustion engines and electricity as their core driving forces have created the United States' world dominance. As a country that will be the center of the world in the future after Europe and the United States, China's ladder must be a new generation of aviation industry. For this reason, the Party Central Committee has listed major large aircraft projects as an unwavering national strategy. As the most active and richest content in the aviation industry, general aviation will surely become the most active factor in technological innovation driving economic development, the pioneer and the experimental field in the development process of my country's aviation industry.
my country's general aviation development has encountered a major problem of insufficient power.
The current situation of my country's general aviation is inconsistent with its status as the world's second largest country in terms of total air transport volume. In recent years, the national regulatory authorities have introduced a series of promotion and support policies to vigorously promote the development of my country's general aviation market. However, the power is still insufficient and the expected growth has not been achieved. This is the biggest problem currently facing my country's general aviation industry. In 2017, the total annual transportation turnover of Chinese airlines exceeded 100 billion ton-kilometers, the transportation flight exceeded 10 million hours, the airport took off and landed nearly 10 million times, and the airport passenger throughput exceeded 1.1 billion. Correspondingly, my country's general aviation flight operation volume in 2017 was only 808,000 hours, and it is expected to increase to 2 million hours by 2020. In 2016, the amount of general aviation flight operations in the United States was 24.802 million hours, which was 30 times that of my country in 2017.
The key to general aviation development is not "management and deregulation" but "correct direction"
There are many reasons for the lack of growth momentum for my country's general aviation development, including too strict government control, insufficient infrastructure, and the lack of open military airspace. In our view, these are not the core of the problem. The core key to the lack of motivation for the development of China Navigation is due to the deviation in the overall strategic design of general aviation development, which takes culture and entertainment as the strategic goal and replicates the development methods of developed countries in the last century, resulting in the inability to truly and effectively coordinate the development of social resources required by general aviation to form a strong development motivation.
Airspace is a precious public resource of the country, with huge development space and economic value. The development of navigation is the redevelopment of air resources. This view is shared by the government, the military and the private sector. Aviation operations are related to third parties, and safety must be given top priority. Therefore, "management" is necessary, and management must be strict, practical, and more importantly, efficient. There are a large number of general aircraft and their operations are complex. Stricter and more modern management methods must be adopted to ensure healthy, orderly and efficient operation and development. Our future sky should not be an entertainment hall filled with go-karts, but an efficient and orderly aerial highway. Therefore, the development of China's general aviation should adopt a modern "management" approach that focuses on production and application with appropriate consideration of culture and entertainment to build a huge general aviation market, rather than hoping to "release" to activate momentum.
To achieve effective management, a targeted management system must be established. Both hardware and software are necessary. From the perspective of the whole society, the investment cost will also be huge. A considerable part of the management infrastructure should be funded by the national public finance. If the construction of general navigation infrastructure is mainly used for production construction, comprehensively improving social production efficiency and benefiting the masses, it will inevitably create greater social benefits than the original investment. Such investment is not lacking in China today, and it should be. If a large amount of basic investment in general aviation is only for cultural entertainment or to meet the personal needs of a few wealthy children, it should not be funded by the country's public finances regardless of law or reason.
If the strategic design of the general aviation industry does not conform to China's national conditions and cannot generate effective social benefits, even if the government spends a lot of investment, provides supporting infrastructure, and liberalizes airspace, it will not be able to stimulate the vitality of the general aviation market. Because there is no balance between investment and income, the development of general aviation is not sustainable and there is no growth momentum.
my country must have a general aviation development strategy that suits its national conditions
The strategic goals of my country's general aviation development should first be positioned at production and life, followed by culture and entertainment. Production and life are necessities for human social activities. When the era of general navigation becomes the necessities of production and life, the investment in the entire industry will form positive returns, and the power mechanism of industrial development will naturally form. Under the support of huge social demand, the power of sustainable development of the industry will enter a gradually increasing upward channel;
Our country’s navigation development path should not repeat the path of cultural, entertainment and navigation towns taken by developed countries. Navigation towns in developed countries appeared in the middle and late stages of the last century. Their social environment is a fully industrialized country, with humanistic and educational backgrounds. The end of the Second World War and the Cold War between the East and the West has borne a large amount of industrial costs and a large number of pilots and aviation enthusiast groups, forming a unique social and ecological environment suitable for the development of the general aviation culture and entertainment industry and the aviation real estate industry. Judging from a recent set of statistical data, the United States is the most mature and representative market for general aviation development. The top four general aviation flight hours are personal and recreational flights (29.48%), business flights (19.70%), training flights (16.41%) and air taxis (11.30%). There are three main conditions for the development of personal and recreational flying: first, the country's economic development has reached a certain stage; second, there is a suitable national low-altitude airspace management and use environment; third, there is a large number of aviation enthusiasts with pilot licenses. At present, it seems that our country does not meet these three conditions, and it will not be possible in the short term.
As the largest developing country in the world, China does not currently have such a social and ecological environment, and it will not exist for a long time. Therefore, the design of China's general aviation development strategy must be based on the national conditions of a large developing country, based on the latest achievements in aviation, aerospace, and modern communications, and make full use of the Internet infrastructure to carry out strategic arrangements in the era of information, intelligence, and robot navigation. The commuter aviation that our country has promoted in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and other places in the past few years should fall into this category of flights. Our country's commuter aviation market is located in areas with inconvenient transportation and underdeveloped economies. It mainly meets the travel difficulties of local people and solves people's livelihood problems. However, it has little significance in releasing the vitality of the general aviation market and promoting industrial upgrading. Behind the concept of air taxis is the support of industries such as the sharing economy, smart driving, and Internet+, and these industries are also emerging advantageous industries in our country. If we can find a service market for air taxis, it will be creative and pioneering to meet consumer demand and promote the development of industries such as aviation manufacturing, sharing economy, smart driving and Internet+.
Generally speaking, the development of my country's general aviation must be based on China's national conditions, and this goal is also different from the existing general aviation developed countries and regions. Judging from the existing practice of my country’s general aviation operation services, there must be a strategic approach that is consistent with China’s national conditions under the existing economic, cultural, industrial and consumer market environments.
The small commercial aircraft transportation industry in line with national conditions has unlimited development prospects
From a goal-oriented analysis, giving priority to the development of air cargo taxis is most suitable for our country's national conditions. Air taxis belong to the category of small commercial aircraft transportation, especially small aircraft transporting cargo and passengers operating in low-altitude (below 5,400 meters or below 3,000 meters) uncontrolled airspace. It is a low-cost, extremely efficient, and highly comfortable short-distance commercial flight service. Its take-off and landing points are often short runways, vertical take-off and landing points or lateral take-off and landing points. Its aircraft can be fixed-wing, rotorcraft, helicopters, propellers or light jets. Its consumer base is the general public. The starting service market of air cargo taxis can be in the following fields: first, providing fast transportation services between economically developed urban agglomerations; second, providing fast transportation services between economically developed cities and remote industrial zones; third, providing fast transportation services between economically developed cities and remote eco-tourism areas; fourth, providing fast transportation services between economically developed cities and remote areas.
The new generation air traffic layout will play a decisive role in the success or failure of my country's general aviation
The core of the small commercial aircraft transportation system lies in the establishment of a fully digitalized new generation air control system, which can continuously improve the utilization efficiency of airspace resources while continuously strengthening air traffic management, and enable more aircraft to fly efficiently and autonomously on established routes in the air. Surveillance, communications, intelligence and other services for fixed routes and airspace are more targeted, with appropriate investment scale and easy implementation. The functional performance of aircraft suitable for flight is more clear, with a range of 300-500 kilometers, manned driving, intelligent driving, new energy, and compatibility. Internet-based commercial services are more convenient.
Our country's general aviation market is in the development and cultivation period. We should give full play to the special status and role of air transportation, correctly plan, guide and cultivate the development of general aviation, and fully develop and utilize the national airspace resources to make it a new world for economic growth.
Three suggestions on the development strategy of my country’s general aviation industry
Cover image: Yu Guoqiang
Machine-translated from the Chinese original 突破通航困境实现经济增长新天地 (published 2024-06-28). WeChat original ↗