Filling the Gap in Rural Aviation Culture: How a Grassroots Team Sparked the Curiosity of a Billion People

In the vast townships and rural areas of China, about one billion people have never taken a plane or even seen a real aircraft. This unmet "curiosity" market has been targeted by a grassroots startup team - the aerospace science and technology cultural entertainment tour project aims to "sink" aviation culture to county - level and lower - tier regions through the transformation of decommissioned airliners, exhibitions of fighter jet models, and immersive flight experiences.

From a decorator to a promoter of aviation science popularization

The origin of the project is closely related to the personal experience of its founder, Wu Kaiping. With only a primary school education, he dropped out of school early and worked in the building decoration industry. However, due to his long - term interest in aviation culture, he gradually focused on the transformation and reuse of decommissioned airliners. The team's research found that the awareness of aviation in rural areas of China is almost non - existent. Left - behind children and the elderly lack the opportunity to contact real aircraft, and even residents in first - and second - tier cities rarely have the chance to understand the internal structure and flight principles of airplanes from multiple dimensions. This market pain point inspired the team to come up with the idea of popularizing aviation culture through touring exhibitions.

The project is positioned as a science popularization and entertainment activity featuring "low - cost and high - participation". By exhibiting a decommissioned airliner (Airbus A320) and 1:1 replicas of J - 20, WZ - 10 and other models, and combining interactive devices such as VR flight simulators and naked - eye flight cinemas, it creates a mobile exhibition hall integrating national defense education, technological experience, and cultural entertainment. The profit model mainly relies on ticket revenue (expected to account for 50%), VR experience fees (30%), and sales of surrounding derivatives (20%). The team estimates that the pre - tax profit margin can reach 70% - 85%.

Business model: Leveraging the "curiosity - seeking" to tap into the sinking market

The uniqueness of the rural market is the core logic of the project design. On the one hand, there are limited entertainment consumption options in county - level and lower - tier regions. People have a high enthusiasm for participating in offline activities and have greater flexibility in time. On the other hand, the scarcity of aviation culture brings its own topic effect and is easy to form word - of - mouth communication. The team plans to carry out touring exhibitions county by county, with the cycle of each stop controlled within 40 - 60 days, and reduce venue and operation costs through local cooperation. For example, collaborating with local government cultural and tourism projects or organizing collective visits by schools for students can not only enhance social benefits but also improve the stability of passenger flow.

From PPT to implementation: Double thresholds of funds and technology

Currently, the project is still in the business plan stage. It has not received financing, nor has it started equipment procurement and touring exhibition testing. The team revealed that the biggest challenge lies in the initial capital gap: the procurement and transformation cost of a decommissioned airliner is about several million yuan, and the large - scale deployment cost of technologies such as VR equipment and naked - eye cinemas is also high. In addition, how to ensure the efficiency of equipment transportation and maintenance during high - density touring exhibitions is the key to whether the operation model can work.

The team currently has two core members: Wu Kaiping is responsible for overall planning and resource connection, and Wang Xiaowei, the financial manager, focuses on cost model design. They both admit that their grassroots background leads to insufficient capabilities in technology R & D and capital connection, and they need to rely on external partners to make up for these deficiencies. The next step is to seek angel - round financing for the procurement of the first decommissioned airliner and the preparation of the first pilot event.

Two - way imagination of social benefits and commercial value

If the project can be implemented on a large scale, its potential social value cannot be ignored. According to research by guiding units such as China Aerospace Construction Group, the penetration rate of national defense education - themed touring exhibitions in the county - level market is less than 5%. The aerospace theme, with its combination of a sense of technology and entertainment, is more likely to attract family customers. From a business perspective, there are about 500 million rural people in China. Based on an average annual per - capita cultural and entertainment consumption expenditure of 500 yuan, there is at least a trillion - level incremental space in the sinking market. If the project can cover 100 counties, with an average annual visit volume of 100,000 people per county, it can support a revenue of hundreds of millions of yuan.

Although the future is full of uncertainties, this grassroots team is trying to prove that when the business narratives in first - tier cities tend to be saturated, those neglected "curiosities" may actually contain more real entrepreneurial opportunities.