Miracle Plus has invested in an electric aircraft company. "Aerospace Exploration" aims to sell eSTOLs to multiple overseas markets | Exclusive from 36Kr

Text | Liu Jingqiong

Editor | A Zhi

Cover Source | Provided by the enterprise

36Kr learned that Shenzhen Aerospace Exploration Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Aerospace Exploration"), a developer of intelligent medium-sized electric aircraft, announced the completion of a seed round of financing worth several million yuan. This round of financing was invested by Miracle Plus and a strategic industrial party, with Duowei Capital serving as the long-term exclusive financial advisor. The funds raised will be used for the R & D of the first model, L400.

Aerospace Exploration was founded in August 2024 and focuses on the R & D and manufacturing of medium-sized aircraft with aviation electrification and intelligence. The founder is a master from the China Aeronautical Research Institute and has worked in aviation and drone enterprises such as Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute, DJI, and AVIC Jincheng, being responsible for the overall R & D of agricultural drones, industrial eVTOL, and eSTOL projects. The core members of the team come from the School of Aerospace Engineering of Tsinghua University, Beihang University, Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute, Volant Drone, and DJI, with rich experience in areas such as overall aerodynamics, flight loads, and structural strength.

According to the founder, Aerospace Exploration's development strategy is to "start from agriculture and gradually expand to other scenarios." Its first eSTOL agricultural drone L400 for large farms has completed the design and entered the production and manufacturing stage, and is expected to be assembled and rolled off the production line by the end of July. Currently, L400 has received intent orders from multiple domestic and overseas customers.

L400 all-electric short takeoff and landing fixed-wing drone

Targeting large farms, with full-stack self-developed flight control and power systems

Compared with traditional manual spraying and ground mechanical operation methods, agricultural drones can effectively reduce labor costs, water consumption, and pesticide usage, thereby reducing the overall operating costs of agricultural plant protection.

Currently, most of the popular multi-rotor models on the market are suitable for small and medium-sized plots. For large farms of over ten thousand mu, existing agricultural drones need to transfer frequently, and their operation efficiency is lower than that of traditional large agricultural aircraft. Traditional large agricultural aircraft have disadvantages such as high operating costs and thresholds, low pesticide usage efficiency, and the inability to operate at night. Large farm owners need a comprehensive product that can match the operation efficiency of large agricultural aircraft and, at the same time, match the operating costs, usage thresholds, and simplicity of multi-rotor agricultural drones.

Targeting the needs of large farm owners of over ten thousand mu, Aerospace Exploration has launched the L400 all-electric short takeoff and landing fixed-wing drone (eSTOL). Official data shows that L400 has a takeoff weight of 850kg, a takeoff and landing distance of 150m, and can take off from rural dirt roads/grasslands/simple roads. According to the team's test data, compared with competitors, L400 has shortened the takeoff distance by 60%, increased the payload coefficient by 20%, reduced the BOM cost by 30%, decreased the overall operating cost by 40%, and improved the operation effect by 15%.

The realization of short-distance and high-efficiency takeoff and landing benefits from the self-developed distributed electric propulsion power system of Aerospace Exploration. The founder said that the high-voltage distributed electric propulsion system, combined with redundant design and AI algorithm optimization, has significantly reduced the material and maintenance costs of the power system and improved its safety.

It is worth mentioning that many technologies from the automotive field have been introduced into the eSTOL flight control system self-developed by Aerospace Exploration in a full-stack manner, including the use of automotive-grade chips, modular algorithms, and self-developed software architecture design based on the autonomous driving engine. This is also the team's preparation for the future R & D of manned aircraft.

"Our ultimate goal is to transplant the mature system of the automotive industry. We hope that when we develop manned aircraft in the future, we can also provide customers with multiple options such as refrigerators, color TVs, large sofas, and OTA intelligent upgrades, just like Tesla." The founder added.

Focusing on the overseas market and having received multiple intent orders

In terms of commercialization, Aerospace Exploration adopts the strategy of "mainly focusing on the overseas market and supplemented by the domestic market" because the number of large farms of over ten thousand mu overseas far exceeds that in China, and their business models are highly mechanized.

The overseas market has a large demand but limited competition. Currently, the main competitors of Aerospace Exploration are traditional agricultural aircraft manufacturers such as Air Tractor and newcomers such as Pyka in the United States. When talking about the comparison among the three, the founder believes that Air Tractor is a traditional large agricultural aircraft designed in the 1970s without intelligent functions, having a technological gap with L400; although Pyka's products are also electric fixed-wing drones using intelligent technologies, L400 has a lower cost relying on the domestic supply chain.

It is reported that currently, L400 has received intent orders from multiple overseas customers in Russia, Australia, Central Asia, the United States, etc.

The founder mentioned that after the aircraft is assembled by the end of July, Aerospace Exploration plans to conduct the first flight of L400 in September. By the end of the year, the company will also complete an optimization and finalization of the product to prepare for mass production and operation next year.

After completing the test flight of L400, Aerospace Exploration plans to start the second round of financing in the second half of the year.