Recently, one of the world's top overseas exhibitions for industrial intelligent equipment successfully concluded, displaying a wide range of Chinese industrial drones. Among all exhibits, the long-range VTOL fixed-wing drone designed for remote missions stood out as the biggest highlight.
Traditional fixed-wing UAVs rely strictly on airport runways for takeoff and landing, while multi-rotor drones suffer from limited flight time and narrow coverage, which have long restricted large-scale overseas engineering operations. The long-range hybrid VTOL drone showcased at the expo integrates vertical takeoff capability of multi-rotors and high-speed cruise performance of fixed wings. It only requires a small flat ground area for launch and recovery, perfectly fitting operation zones lacking dedicated landing sites such as mountainous Southeast Asia, deserts in the Middle East, coastal areas of Europe and America, and remote forest regions.
In terms of core performance, the drone is equipped with an optimized hybrid gasoline-electric power system to greatly extend single-flight endurance, supporting an operation radius of over 100 kilometers per mission. Its airframe adopts integrated aerospace carbon fiber molding, enabling stable flight under level-6 strong winds and reliable operation under extreme high and low temperatures. The standardized modular mounting interface allows fast switching of mission payloads including oblique photography cameras, LiDAR sensors, infrared optoelectronic pods, multispectral cameras and emergency communication relays. One single platform covers seven mainstream industrial sectors: national land mapping, long-distance inspection of high-voltage power lines, full monitoring of oil & gas pipelines, offshore wind farm maintenance, forest fire patrol, coastal security surveillance and post-disaster emergency survey.
During the exhibition, teams of engineering service providers, surveying firms and energy operation groups from Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Australia gathered around the booth. Our technical team demonstrated the full autonomous workflow on site: vertical ascent, long-distance high-speed cruise, high-precision scanning over target zones and automatic return with real-time data transmission. Its centimeter-level positioning accuracy, fully automatic route planning and AI-powered defect recognition won widespread recognition from overseas visitors. Many buyers commented that traditional manual long-distance patrol involves high vehicle transit costs, heavy labor input and blind inspection zones. The long-range VTOL drone can complete dozens of kilometers of continuous work in one flight, cutting labor and construction costs by over 60% while eliminating safety hazards on roads, heights and sea surfaces.
To meet localized demands of global clients, this drone is equipped with an all-English ground control system and remote cloud data management platform, with complete overseas after-sales training, spare parts supply and customized payload modification services available. Industry analysts point out that the global low-altitude operation market keeps expanding, and demand for VTOL drones combining flexible deployment and long-distance cruising continues to surge. The long-range model displayed at this show precisely meets rigid overseas market demands and will accelerate mass export in the near future, driving the intelligent transformation of industrial operation and maintenance worldwide.
