From Low Altitude: A Frontline Case Study of Domestic Substitution in Aviation Manufacturing | OpenTalk Recap

On October 27, 36Kr hosted an OpenTalk livestream titled "From 'Chokepoints' to Self-Sufficiency: Domestic Substitution in Aviation Manufacturing in Progress." Guests Wang Gang, founder and CEO of Lanxiao Aviation; Sun Peng, general manager of Jitai Aviation Technology; and Wang Fei, founder and general manager of Erlingba Advanced Technology, shared insights on the independent development of aviation range extenders, intelligent avionics system architecture, and the development of inertial navigation technology, and interacted with viewers online. Below is a summary of the key takeaways from the livestream. Feel free to read, share, and save. Working Backward from Scenarios: Using a Self-Developed Range Extender to Solve Range Constraints Guest speaker: Wang Gang, founder and CEO of Lanxiao Aviation. He has long been engaged in the development of large unmanned aerial vehicles and has served as chief designer and flight control lead for a large UAV model at a major aerospace company. He has received national and Beijing municipal science and technology awards. He led Lanxiao Aviation in completing full tilt-transition test flights of a large hybrid electric eVTOL aircraft, and its self-developed 800V piston aviation range extender and flight control subsystem have already been commercialized separately in the market. Keywords: eVTOL, hybrid electric propulsion, tilt-transition test flight The outline for the 15th Five-Year Plan proposes accelerating the development of new low-altitude equipment, such as long-range vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, and breaking through key technologies such as hybrid power systems. Under the guiding principle of "cargo before passengers, suburbs before cities," Lanxiao Aviation chose to enter the market with large range-extended vertical takeoff and landing unmanned cargo aircraft. Wang Gang judges that scenarios such as time-sensitive express delivery, transport in highland, island, and mountainous areas, and emergency rescue are more likely to first generate real commercial demand. Based on the requirements these scenarios place on large payloads and long range, the Lanxiao LX-1 adopts a range-extended hybrid electric system with tilt-rotor design. It is designed for a range of 1,000 km, a payload of 700 kg, and an economical cruising speed of 200–250 km/h, with the goal of achieving half-day point-to-point direct delivery to any point within a 1,000 km radius. In June 2026, the LX-1 completed the full flight sequence of vertical takeoff, tilt transition, fixed-wing cruise, and reverse transition to vertical landing. According to simulation estimates, a purely electric eVTOL carrying 300 kg of cargo, while retaining emergency battery reserves, has an endurance of less than 100 km. The range-extended approach aims to address precisely this practical range constraint of purely electric solutions. The range-extended design can adjust its energy supply by flight phase: in high-power demand conditions such as vertical takeoff and landing, it operates in pure electric or hybrid mode; in lower-power conditions such as cruising, the range-extender generator...