At the International Exhibition of Low-Altitude Aircraft Economy in Shanghai, SHI Qiang showcased its fully domestic flight control platform, which utilizes components manufactured in China. This platform was presented against the backdrop of significant challenges related to dependence on imported key components within China's low-altitude aircraft industry.
The 2026 exhibition highlighted a critical bottleneck: a substantial reliance on imported core components. The company's data indicated that 90% of navigation chips with a process technology below 28 nm are imported, and the share of domestic content in LiDAR is less than 40%. Furthermore, battery energy density in the range of 250–300 Wh/kg lags significantly behind the required 400–500 Wh/kg for eVTOL aircraft. These technological gaps restrict aircraft performance and increase safety risks in a sector China aims to establish as a national industrial pillar.
SHI Qiang's Marketing Director, Chen Jiahui, emphasized the difficulties engineers face: the need to adhere to extremely tight weight budgets while simultaneously ensuring high computational power, longer battery life, and absolute reliability. The company focused on the component level rather than finished displays, offering four solution sets: power systems, flight control, perception, and communication.
The power system demonstrated a continuous output of 100 A on a single board measuring only 30.5 by 30.5 millimeters, achieving a power-to-weight ratio improvement of over 30% compared to competing solutions, which directly addresses the conflict between flight range and payload.
The flight control platform represents the most significant achievement in domestic replacement. SHI Qiang introduced a hardware flight control platform that is fully localized in its core components. It is initially compatible with major open firmware, allowing it to be used without additional development. This eliminates the risk of supply chain disruptions for chips, which previously hindered drone and eVTOL manufacturers in China due to uncertain chip delivery schedules and geopolitical restrictions on importing flight controllers. The platform is applicable to both FPV racing drones and industrial UAVs.
Perception systems included high-precision vision and LiDAR modules working together with algorithms that allow the aircraft to clearly see and accurately assess the environment in complex low-altitude conditions. Communication solutions covered Wi-Fi 7, BLE 6.0, and the Matter protocol modules, as well as single-signal BeiDou-based RTK high-precision positioning modules specifically designed for difficult low-altitude environments where data and video links are often lost. This helps solve the problem of aircraft loss incidents caused by signal loss when operating in urban canyons and remote areas, which is a critical barrier to scaling operations beyond line-of-sight.
The component approach reflects a strategic understanding that the performance, safety, and cost of low-altitude aircraft ultimately depend on the capabilities of the base components. Industry analysts note that while China has made rapid progress in eVTOL airframe design and integration, critical semiconductor and sensor technologies remain dependent on imports. The SHI Qiang flight control platform demonstrates that targeted domestic replacement is achievable through collaboration among chip companies, module developers, and end manufacturers. The company predicts that its solutions can reduce clients' R&D cycles by more than 30%, helping eVTOL companies meet certification deadlines for airworthiness and commercial operation in the 2027–2028 period.
India possesses one of the world's largest drone markets, characterized by a growing number of manufacturing companies and licensed pilots. However, the vast majority of these unmanned aerial vehicles operate on electronics produced in China.
The core equipment, including autopilots and flight controllers—which serve as the 'brain' of the drone—as well as modules for location tracking and stability maintenance, is largely imported. This dependence presents not only a commercial but also a strategic problem. In the event of escalating tensions with the component-supplying country, shortages or quality issues could lead to the grounding of an entire fleet, including military drones.
ZeroDrag was founded in 2022 by Shantanu Behede, its CEO, and Amit Nimje, its COO. They clearly stated their mission: 'We do not manufacture drones. We create what every drone needs,' noted Behede. He emphasized that for the scaling of India's UAV industry, a reliable avionics layer sourced from India itself is necessary.
ZeroDrag began its operations in the IIT Delhi research park, where it underwent incubation, and now operates from Nagpur. The company specializes in creating this entire avionics suite—the electronics that enable the aircraft to function. In the context of drones, this includes the flight controller and autopilot, motor controllers, GNSS modules for navigation, telemetry for in-flight data exchange, and hardware for payload attachment.
ZeroDrag develops this comprehensive layer and sells it to drone manufacturers rather than producing the aircraft themselves. Its components are modular and compatible with various platforms, ranging from small first-person view devices to industrial UAVs, and work with widely used flight control software. This allows the startup to supply multiple manufacturers simultaneously without competing with them directly. ZeroDrag positions itself as a reliable domestic alternative to imported electronics, backed by local support.
The company's clients include large UAV enterprises and the growing community of hobbyists assembling first-person view devices who require reliable and affordable electronic components that are not always easy to source in small quantities. The company supplies its solutions to manufacturers in the defense, agriculture, logistics, and industrial sectors. There is also growing interest from the US and Europe, where manufacturers are also seeking non-Chinese components.
ZeroDrag raised 6.5 crore rupees in a seed round led by Transition VC. This round followed a pre-seed round in 2023, which involved Enrission India Capital and private investors, amounting to 1.2 crore rupees. The funds raised will be used to develop testing and manufacturing infrastructure and ensure supply chain stability. The lead investor notes that avionics and flight control represent the intelligent layer of every drone, which today is almost entirely dependent on China, making the Indian supplier part of the national infrastructure, not just a product company.
The 6.5 crore rupee round marks the transition from technology proof-of-concept to mass adoption among customers. In the coming years, the company plans to expand its range to enterprise-level industrial UAV equipment, including systems for heavy drones and future eVTOL platforms. The primary reason for this step is that as India's drone industry grows, the country does not want its most critical electronic components to come through a disputed border.
China's electric propulsion industry in aviation has achieved significant success in 2026 through the delivery of the AEE25 engine, full certification of EHang, and breakthroughs by Wolong Electric, paving the way for a low-altitude flight economy.
Wuxi received the first serial unit of the AEE25 aviation electric motor on June 5th, marking a tangible step toward mass production of critical power components for China's electric aircraft and eVTOL industry. This success coincided with EHang receiving all four certification documents for commercial operation of the EH216-S, making it the world's first eVTOL with full type certification for passenger transport.
The task in propulsion systems is extremely complex. Aviation electric motors must provide high power density, reliability under extreme temperatures and vibrations, low weight, and safety compliant with certification standards, demanding much more than automotive or industrial electric motors. Chinese manufacturers, including Wolong Electric Group, have developed high-power density aviation motors equipped with redundant windings, high-temperature insulation, integrated liquid cooling, and SiC-based power electronics, which helps reduce the overall system volume. Wolong's experience demonstrates the dual complexity of simultaneously achieving technical specifications and obtaining airworthiness certification.
Several Chinese eVTOL manufacturers have moved beyond the prototype stage. EHang holds full type certification for the EH216-S model, while AutoFlight AE200 and other crewed eVTOL models are undergoing certification processes alongside the certification of their supporting electric propulsion systems. In February 2026, the Civil Aviation Administration of China issued Airworthiness Standards for High-Power Aircraft, establishing a regulatory framework for electric aircraft certification. This move occurred later than EASA's 2018 guidelines in Europe but earlier than formal adoption of FAA rules.
Industry experts from Bihana University and Wolong Electric have identified three main obstacles. Firstly, airworthiness certification cycles remain lengthy due to incomplete standards, increasing development costs. Secondly, vertiport infrastructure and low-altitude airspace management systems are still under development, reducing confidence in commercial implementation. Thirdly, the yield rate of aerospace-grade components remains low, resulting in a significantly higher unit cost compared to similar industrial or automotive components.
Limitations related to battery technology have proven less severe than previously anticipated. Modern lithium-ion cells allow for flight ranges of 250–300 km for winged eVTOL configurations with optimized aerodynamics, which is sufficient for most planned urban mobility missions. Future improvements in cell technology could increase range by 50% or more. Hybrid electric solutions offer potential for longer-range missions, but they add technical complexity and certification burden that may not be justified without real demand for long-haul flights.
China's eVTOL industry is roughly synchronized with global leaders in terms of certification progress, reflecting the advantage of a fast follower approach in the new regulatory sphere. The critical next step is transitioning from certification to production scale, with AEE25 deliveries and investments in Wolong's production line indicating that Chinese manufacturers are preparing for mass production capable of shifting the competitive balance in the emerging global eVTOL supply chain.
