On August 22, Hubei’s first 50-kilometer cross-city drone logistics route successfully completed its maiden flight.
The flight plan was approved through the UOM (Unified Operations Management for Drones) platform for airspace application. The drone used was a vertical take-off and landing fixed-wing model suitable for long-distance transport, with a payload capacity of 3 to 5 kilograms. The entire flight was monitored by certified pilots and featured multiple safety redundancies, such as link redundancy and GPS redundancy, to ensure safety.
“The core advantage of low-altitude logistics lies in significantly improving delivery efficiency,” it was noted. For example, transport between Hanchuan’s Smart Down Apparel Industrial Park and Wuhan’s Han Zheng Street is often affected by traffic congestion in traditional ground transportation, whereas drone delivery can bypass ground traffic limitations, reducing transport time by more than 50%. Improved logistics timeliness helps optimize warehousing costs, allowing merchants to achieve “just-in-time replenishment,” reduce reliance on large physical warehouses, and minimize overstock risks and related storage expenses.
Currently, Han Zheng Street’s apparel industry is actively collaborating with manufacturing bases in Hanchuan, Tianmen, Xiantao, and Qianjiang to strengthen functions such as sample display, design prototyping, and business negotiations. This drone logistics channel enables precise and rapid delivery of samples, urgent orders, and high-end custom apparel, enhancing overall industry coordination efficiency.
