Food from above

Drone delivers food to hungry visitors to the Great Wall in China

Meituan uses a handful of drones to deliver food to hungry visitors to the Great Wall of China.

(Bild: Meituan)

Real heroes have to go to Badaling. The Great Wall winds its way through the town in the north-west of Beijing - a place of pilgrimage for the Chinese. Mao Zedong once climbed up there and is said to have said: Anyone who has not been on the wall is not a real hero. Decades later, masses of tourists still struggle to climb the former protective wall. Those who have made the strenuous climb in this high-tech country can reward themselves at the top with fast food or drinks - delivered by a drone.

Four to five aircraft are in use there, says Pu Siwu, an employee of the service provider Meituan, which operates the delivery drones. The drones make 20 deliveries per hour from the valley. On the way back, they pick up garbage. Orders are placed via cell phone app. But that's not all: "This flight route is also used to transport emergency medicine," says Pu. In three to five minutes, aid can arrive if a Wall tourist has blood sugar problems, for example.

Beijing creates hype
"Drones are now very common," says aviation expert Shen Yingchun from the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Delivery services are just getting started. But they are already widely used in agriculture and for monitoring power grids.

Beijing is massively promoting the so-called low-altitude economy, i.e. the economy in airspace up to 1,000 meters. Drones are one of the "new qualitative productive forces" that the Communist Party wants to use to secure progress and growth in the future. China is fueling the hype surrounding the industry, says Shen. It involves high costs and risks, which is why it cannot develop without state aid, she explains.

According to official figures, the sector was worth an estimated 500 billion yuan in 2023 (currently around 66 billion euros). By 2030, the sector could be worth around two trillion yuan. As of July, the Civil Aviation Administration counted almost 608,000 registered drones in China, 48% more than at the end of 2023. According to the head of the authority, Song Zhiyong, there were also more than 14,000 licensed companies in the unmanned aerial vehicle sector in the world's second-largest economy.

Coffee from the air with a click
What delights tourists in Badaling is already part of everyday life in the southern Chinese metropolis of Shenzhen. Meituan uses drones to deliver coffee and other snacks there. Over a dozen test stations have already been set up in public areas such as parks.

Here's how it works: an employee collects the order placed via app from the restaurant or café and takes it to a drone launch platform, which is usually located on the roofs of shopping centers. There, the delivery is packed into a box and attached to a drone, which flies along a fixed route to a pick-up station. The drone places the delivery on the roof of the station. The customer can then collect their order from a securely locked compartment by scanning a QR code.

The Chinese metropolis of Shenzhen has a population of just under 18 million.

(Bild: AFP)

However, even in Shenzhen and Badaling, the service is far from always available. The drones currently only fly during the day. When it is windy or raining, they stay on the ground.

Air cabs on the rise
"Shenzhen is definitely a pioneer, not only in terms of the industrial chain there, but also because of its policies," says Shen. In Shenzhen's Guangdong province, where the megacity of Guangzhou is also located and Hong Kong borders, drones and autonomous air cabs are set to connect cities even further. Unmanned air cabs are to take passengers to their destination in just a few minutes, thus avoiding the congested roads. However, at the equivalent of over 1000 euros per flight, this is hardly suitable for the masses.

The state and manufacturers are still facing problems anyway: The airspaces are only slowly opening up to the drone economy, as expert Shen says. From a technical point of view, batteries have not lasted long enough so far. Important sensors or lightweight parts also still have to be imported.

Still a dream of the future in Austria and Germany
In Austria and Germany, much of what is already up and running in China is still a dream of the future. The Upper Austrian aviation supplier FACC has been working with the Chinese air cab start-up EHang on the series production of a pilotless flying vehicle, but the project has recently become quieter. FACC also cooperates with the US company Archer and supplies logistics drones to another US company.

The Upper Austrian aviation supplier FACC worked with the Chinese air cab start-up EHang on the series production of an air cab.

(Bild: APA/HANS PUNZ)

In Germany, a fully automated scheduled drone flight operation was launched this year in Lüdenscheid as a delivery service for companies. According to the project partners, this was the first commercial scheduled flight operation in Germany using a specially developed transport drone. According to the Federal Aviation Office, there are four holders of a permit for transport drones in Germany.

Laboratory samples by drone
Nothing is flying in the capital Berlin yet. Labor Berlin, which belongs to the Charité hospital, wants to work with the US developer Matternet to have drones fly samples from Berlin hospitals to its central laboratory. According to Matternet, the project should start at the beginning of 2024. The operating license has been in place since November 2023. However, Labor Berlin explains that "legally required approvals" are still pending.

Others in the industry are lacking money. Air cab pioneer Lilium from Gauting near Munich had to file for insolvency due to financing problems, but can continue operating for the time being following a court ruling. Another problem was that the German Green Party rejected a federal government guarantee for half of a 100 million euro loan for Lilium in October. The start-up had planned its first manned flight for early 2025.