The low-altitude economy is a strategic emerging industry that China is prioritizing for development. It represents a vast new frontier for technological innovation, industrial upgrading and consumption growth.
In recent years, Huaihua has seized the major opportunity presented by the development. It has made general aviation a key driver for cultivating new quality productive forces and advancing regional industrial transformation, while continuing to improve its systems for airspace resources, infrastructure, talent development and industrial support. These efforts are opening a new track for the growth of the low-altitude economy across Great Xiangxi.
Amid this vigorous industrial tide, Huaihua Jinghao General Aviation Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Jinghao General Aviation) has risen with the momentum. Rooted in Huaihua and focused on general aviation, the company has grown into an integrated general aviation enterprise serving great Xiangxi with aviation training, flight services, low-altitude operations and industry applications. It continues to inject strong private-sector vitality into the region's high-quality development of the low-altitude economy.
Returning Home to Pursue a Dream, Building a Strong Foundation in General Aviation
In 2020, Liu Jingqi, who holds a flight instructor license and had worked in general aviation for many years, identified a pressing industry problem: Great Xiangxi had a severe shortage of aviation professionals and underdeveloped low-altitude support services.
Great Xiangxi is mountainous and vast. Forestry, land and natural-resources management, and emergency response all have strong demand for drone-based aerial operations, yet the region lacked compliant, professional aviation training providers. Most aviation technicians had to travel far from home to study, leaving the growth of the low-altitude industry significantly constrained by the shortage of talent.
Determined to address the gaps in his hometown's general aviation industry and empower local industrial upgrading, Liu Jingqi brought together a group of experienced industry specialists and chose to start a business back home. Jinghao General Aviation was established in response to that need.
Starting a business from scratch meant dealing with countless challenges. General aviation is a highly regulated industry, and every stage—from obtaining qualifications and building facilities to assembling a teaching team and operating in compliance—has strict standards. Since its founding, the company has adhered to the principles of standardized education, compliant operations and diversified development. Step by step, it has strengthened its Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) qualification system, built a standardized drone training base and low-altitude operations service center, assembled a professional teaching team and steadily expanded its business footprint. All teaching and training programs have been filed with the civil aviation authorities, ensuring lawful and compliant procedures and consistent, standardized assessment. This has laid the foundation for the company's long-term development.
As the company expanded steadily, the arrival of General Manager Cheng Ruilian injected strong management momentum into its standardized and scaled growth. She has more than 30 years of cross-sector experience in military and corporate management and is highly experienced in team operations, market development and government-business coordination.
After joining Jinghao General Aviation, she built the company's internal management systems in a systematic way, streamlined its organizational structure and strengthened team cohesion. Drawing on an assessment of regional industry conditions, she analyzed market trends, planned the business layout and actively advanced school-enterprise cooperation and government-business joint projects. Under her overall coordination, the company's management system has continued to improve and its brand influence has grown, enabling it to establish a firm foothold in the fiercely competitive general aviation market and lay a foundation for professional and branded development.
With compliance development on one track and business expansion on the other, Jinghao General Aviation has, after years of refinement, built a comprehensive industrial structure in which manned and unmanned aircraft develop in tandem. Its drone business covers a wide range of applications, including CAAC drone license training, aviation science education and study programs for young people, agricultural and forestry spraying, power-line inspection, engineering surveying and aerial mapping, and low-altitude flight demonstrations. Its manned-aircraft business focuses on low-altitude sightseeing, flight experiences, and aviation science education and practical training. In doing so, it has filled a gap in Huaihua's market for civilian low-altitude flight experiences, allowing local residents to experience the appeal of flight and engage with aviation technology close to home.
Integrating Industry and Education to Develop Talent, Coordinating Government and Business to Build Platforms
Talent is the primary resource for the sustained development of the low-altitude economy. For the low-altitude industry in Greater Xiangxi to develop steadily and sustainably, it needs the support of a local pool of aviation technicians. With talent development as a central priority, Jinghao General Aviation has placed aviation training at the heart of its growth strategy and built an integrated training system combining classroom instruction, simulator training and hands-on flight operations. It is continuously supplying the region with certified aviation professionals.
The company has a strong teaching team, bringing together several veteran civil aviation flight instructors and a group of young flight specialists who have worked on the front lines of education for years. They tailor instruction to each student's foundation and needs. Yang Run, a former service member, is one of the team's key instructors. His military career shaped a rigorous, meticulous and pragmatic approach. After moving into aviation education, he brought that disciplined and standardized approach into the classroom, strictly followed teaching standards, patiently explained aviation theory and carefully guided students through practical flight operations. His work has helped students build solid professional skills and steadily improved the company's overall teaching quality.
Today, successive groups of students systematically learn drone piloting, aviation regulations, aerial photography and surveying, and other professional skills here. After earning CAAC drone licenses, they enter jobs in compliance across agriculture and forestry, emergency response, surveying and mapping, and culture and tourism. To date, the company has trained several hundred certified aviation technicians, providing solid support for local industrial development and employment through skills training.
To remove bottlenecks in industrial development and amplify the benefits of resource concentration, Jinghao General Aviation has proactively connected with a state-owned capital platform and formed a strong partnership with Zhijiang Yuanzhou Culture Media Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Zhijiang Urban Construction Investment and Development Co., Ltd. Together, they are building the Zhijiang Low-Altitude Industry Operations Center. The project draws on Zhijiang Airport's favorable airspace resources and infrastructure, as well as the state-owned platform's strengths, and combines them with Jinghao General Aviation's technical capabilities, professional instructors and market-oriented operations expertise. Together, the partners are creating a specialized low-altitude industry platform integrating flight operations, talent training, low-altitude cultural tourism and aviation operations support. The project fills gaps in the low-altitude economy industrial chain across Greater Xiangxi and moves the region's general aviation industry from scattered projects toward a new stage of standardized, regularized and industrialized development.
The company's service radius continues to expand. Its business now covers Huaihua, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Loudi, Shaoyang and Tongren in Guizhou, as well as other areas of Greater Xiangxi, with dozens of aviation application projects completed. In the region's continuous mountain forests, drones conduct forest-fire prevention patrols and pest monitoring. At major construction sites, they perform aerial surveying and mapping to collect geographic data efficiently. Across rural fields, they carry out agricultural spraying to help stabilize yields and improve the efficiency of grain and specialty-crop production. Aviation technology is helping industries of all kinds improve quality and efficiency, demonstrating the practical value of the low-altitude economy.
Pursuing Blue-Sky Dreams, Embracing Responsibility and Opening New Frontiers in the Low-Altitude Economy
Deeply engaged in general aviation, Jinghao General Aviation is committed to more than commercial operations. It has also taken on social responsibility by actively promoting aviation culture and cultivating a spirit of scientific inquiry. Aviation science education and study programs are a signature business area that the company has made a priority.
The company regularly organizes aviation science activities for primary and secondary school students and young people. It offers immersive study programs including aviation knowledge classes, model-aircraft assembly, flight simulation and drone flight demonstrations. These activities bring children closer to aircraft, help them understand the principles of aviation and experience the appeal of technology, planting in them a desire to look to the skies and explore science. Many former service members and military families have also come to the company for skills training, transitioning into aviation technology careers and pursuing a second start in work and entrepreneurship on the new low-altitude track.
In response to forest-fire prevention, flood control and drought relief, geological-disaster inspections and other emergency missions, Jinghao General Aviation actively answers the call of local emergency authorities. Drawing on drones' strengths in high-altitude patrols and rapid response, it provides public-interest technical support through aerial remote sensing and airborne surveys. With aviation capabilities, it contributes to grassroots emergency management and ecological protection, demonstrating the responsibility of a locally rooted general aviation enterprise.
Riding the winds of a new era and pursuing new horizons in the sky, Hunan's low-altitude economy is currently accelerating. The construction of the Huaihua International Land Port is advancing steadily, and multiple policy incentives are creating broad opportunities for the general aviation industry.
At this new starting point, Jinghao General Aviation will remain rooted in Huaihua and continue to deepen its presence in the low-altitude sector. It will keep improving its talent-training system, sharpening its aviation technology and service capabilities, and expanding emerging businesses such as low-altitude cultural tourism, aviation operations and flight experiences. In doing so, it will help more aviation applications take root and flourish across the Wuxi region.
Huaihua will surely ride the tailwinds of the low-altitude economy and spread its wings toward higher and farther horizons in the blue sky.
(Translated by Feng Tao)