Chasing dreams in the blue sky, spreading wings of brilliance. The sky is vast, let us fly together. On September 26, the 2026 China International Flight Vehicle Design Challenge (Xinyi Station, Jiangsu) grandly opened at Xinyi Qipan General Aviation Airport.

A total of 37 teams and 184 contestants from across the country engaged in peak competition across multiple professional events, including fixed-wing precision net striking, vertical take-off and landing payload delivery, rocket launching, heavy-lift flight, and water rocket-boosted spacecraft.

Event Empowerment Activates Aviation Vitality

It is understood that the China International Flight Vehicle Design Challenge (CADC) is a highly influential aerospace research-oriented brand event in China, comprehensively assessing contestants' capabilities in flight vehicle design and development, precision flight control, and team collaboration. It serves as an important platform for discovering and nurturing young scientific and innovative talent in the low-altitude sector.

During the competition, various flight vehicles independently designed and developed by participating teams took off, performed precision operations, and maintained stable endurance, transforming theoretical knowledge in aerodynamics, automatic control, and structural engineering into practical results, truly achieving the "landing" of scientific innovation knowledge.

Extending the Chain and Gathering Momentum to Solidify the Industrial Foundation

The hosting of this event in Xinyi not only represents high recognition of Xinyi's general aviation hardware facilities, event organization capabilities, and comprehensive service support levels, but also injects new vitality into the improvement of Xinyi's low-altitude economy and the in-depth development of aviation science popularization.

In recent years, Xinyi has precisely seized the development opportunity of the low-altitude economy, relying on the core platform advantages of Xinyi Qipan General Aviation Airport to continuously fill in industrial supporting facilities, enrich application scenarios, and gather development momentum. From premium aviation events igniting enthusiasm to the formation and growth of a complete industrial chain, Xinyi's low-altitude economy continues to rise.

As an A1-class general aviation airport established early in the Huaihai Economic Zone and an important carrier for Jiangsu Province's low-altitude economic development, Xinyi Qipan General Aviation Airport can conduct instrument and night flight training, and operates flight training, science popularization and study tours, and short-haul transportation services. Currently, the airport has gathered 11 general aviation enterprises and 3 Part 141 flight schools operating on-site, with industrial carrying capacity and industry service levels continuously improving.

Leveraging its advantages in aviation science popularization and study tours, the airport has innovatively created a dual-track development model of "vocational skills training + aviation study tourism," building an all-age aviation education system covering early childhood aviation enlightenment, youth study practice, and adult professional skills training, continuously converting science popularization enthusiasm into industrial development momentum.

At the same time, Xinyi Aviation Industrial Park is accelerating the gathering of supporting industries such as aircraft component manufacturing and low-altitude flight services. Cultural tourism formats including low-altitude sightseeing and flight experiences continue to heat up, successfully building a full-chain, three-dimensional industrial development pattern of "flight training + aircraft manufacturing + low-altitude tourism + logistics services."

Planning Leadership Racing on the Low-Altitude Track

The vigorous rise of industries cannot be separated from precise empowerment through scientific planning. Xinyi has listed the low-altitude economy as a key characteristic industrial track for city-wide cultivation, focusing on high-value-added areas such as aviation event hosting, professional flight training, aviation science popularization and study tours, general aviation services, and industrial innovation incubation.

It fully leverages comprehensive advantages in transportation location, industrial foundation, and policy support to continuously promote the implementation and quality improvement of various low-altitude application scenarios, constantly optimize and upgrade the low-altitude economic development system and model, and make every effort to promote Xinyi's low-altitude economy brand to stand out, further enhancing regional influence and core competitiveness, and accelerating the construction of a closed-loop, diverse, and vibrant low-altitude economic industrial ecosystem.

Promoting learning through competition to cultivate talent, building dreams through aviation to start a new chapter. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, Xinyi will continue to revitalize the platform resources of Xinyi Qipan General Aviation Airport, actively undertake various high-end aviation events and science popularization activities, continuously solidify the virtuous development chain of "industry as the foundation, events as the medium, and science popularization for education," constantly activate new momentum for low-altitude industrial development, and strive to build a nationally and provincially renowned low-altitude economy demonstration base.