The "flying dream" of the automotive veteran has been realized by Jiangning, Nanjing.

After one-touch start of the vehicle, the manned cockpit will separate from the chassis, the rotors will unfold to take off and fly, while the chassis remains on the ground... The scene above is not a plot from the sci-fi blockbuster *Transformers*, but the real usage scenario of the flying vehicle Tianlu X.

Zhang Xiufeng, the developer of Tianlu X, is an engineer with 18 years of experience in the traditional complete vehicle industry. He develops flying vehicles with automotive industry thinking, instead of simply adding wheels to drones.

In November 2022, he registered Nanjing Tianlu Flying Vehicle Technology Co., Ltd. in Nanjing Jiangning Low-Altitude Industrial Park, which is the first company in China registered with "flying vehicle" directly as its trade name.

In April 2025, Tianlu X made its debut at the Shanghai Auto Show for the first time, attracting widespread attention.

Jiangning's complete automotive supply chain, three-electric supporting facilities, intelligent manufacturing supporting facilities, aviation industry chain and abundant human resources have provided considerable support for Zhang Xiufeng's entrepreneurship.

Not long ago, Radar Finance was invited to visit a number of high-tech enterprises including Nanjing Tianlu Flying Vehicle Technology Co., Ltd. together with a group of top influencers, and found that like Zhang Xiufeng, there are a huge number of entrepreneurs striving on this hot land in Jiangning District.

Statistics show that as one of the sectors with the largest regional area, largest economic volume and largest population in Nanjing, Jiangning covers a regional area of 1563 square kilometers, with a permanent resident population of more than 2 million. Its industrial scale exceeded 500 billion yuan in 2025. The number of high-tech enterprises has exceeded 2600, including 154 national-level specialized and sophisticated "little giant" enterprises, 18 manufacturing single-champion enterprises, more than 4600 registered technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises, and 52 cultivated listed enterprises, all ranking among the top of districts and counties in the whole province.

In the view of many observers, Jiangning has already had a very solid industrial foundation, with huge room for follow-up development.

Installing Wings for Automobiles

Zhang Xiufeng is a veteran in the automotive industry.

When he entered the industry, China's automotive industry was in the stage of looking up to foreign peers, and he witnessed the whole process of China's automotive industry from "following" and "running side by side" to "taking the lead".

Zhang Xiufeng believes that China has reached the ultimate level for ground vehicles, and China cannot be absent from the "road in the sky". He is determined to contribute his own strength to the field of flying vehicles.

To absorb nutrients for entrepreneurship, Zhang Xiufeng enrolled in the EMBA program of Tongji University in 2020. After systematic training, he learned to speak with data, make decisions with logic, and measure value with a closed business loop.

In terms of the alumni network, Tongji alumni are spread across key fields such as automobile manufacturing, finance, and government. The low trust cost and high collaboration efficiency have also become precious wealth on Zhang Xiufeng's entrepreneurial road.

In 2022, Zhang Xiufeng founded Tianlu Flying Vehicle in Jiangning District, Nanjing, which is also the first company named after flying vehicles in China.

Jiangning has a very solid local automotive industrial foundation. As early as 21 years ago, Changan Mazda settled in Jiangning. In recent years, Jiangning District has been committed to the transformation and upgrading of the automobile manufacturing industry, continuously promoting the work of strengthening, supplementing and extending the industrial chain. It not only has profound accumulated technology for fuel vehicles, but also develops rapidly in steer-by-wire chassis, three-electric system and intelligent architecture.

As of July this year, Jiangning has successfully attracted more than 2200 automotive industry enterprises represented by complete vehicle enterprises such as Changan Mazda and SAIC Maxus to gather. At present, Jiangning District has initially built a complete industrial chain and supply chain for new energy vehicles covering R&D, production and sales links, with an industrial scale of nearly 100 billion yuan.

It is worth noting that Jiangning has a national-level aviation mechatronics cluster, where first-tier suppliers of C919 gather, with complete supporting facilities for aviation structural parts, power and mechatronics systems.

In terms of talents, Jiangning District gathers 11 national key laboratories, accounting for 1/4 of the total number in the whole province, 1/3 of the universities and R&D institutes in the whole city, and 1/2 of the national strategic scientific and technological forces. It has a number of major national innovation platforms such as Purple Mountain Laboratories, Institute of Industrial Artificial Intelligence of Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Third-Generation Semiconductor Technology Innovation Center (Nanjing), and gathers 24 universities including Southeast University and Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, with more than 350,000 teachers and students on campus.

Relying on Jiangning's abundant human resources and industrial foundation, Zhang Xiufeng jointly developed Tianlu X independently in 2022 with industry-university-research teams from Changan Automobile, Southeast University, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and other institutions.

In April 2025, Tianlu X made its debut at the Shanghai Auto Show for the first time, causing a huge sensation.

Tianlu X looks similar to an SUV, adopts the "split coupling" technical route, realizes the combination and independent use of the flight cabin and the ground intelligent chassis, and deeply reuses China's mature electric vehicle supply chain.

In ground mode, Tianlu X has a cruising range of 550 kilometers; in flight mode, it realizes vertical take-off and landing through the skateboard-type shared chassis structure, with a flight distance of about 20 to 30 kilometers.

The technical highlights of this vehicle include no runway requirement, AI navigation, automatic obstacle avoidance and real-time connection to the air traffic control system, etc.

Satellite Communication Magic Device Breaks Through Disaster Areas Bravely

Like Zhang Xiufeng, Wei Wu, founder of Controlway Communication, also realized his entrepreneurial dream in Jiangning.

Wei Wu graduated from a communication-related major, once worked in a state-owned enterprise, and has been deeply engaged in the satellite communication industry for more than ten years.

In his long-term work, Wei Wu found that in the satellite communication market, foreign-funded enterprises have strong technical strength, but their products are overpriced, with high operating costs and inconvenient maintenance.

"A satellite communication device that only costs tens of thousands of yuan abroad is often quoted at hundreds of thousands of yuan in China. The biggest hidden danger of using foreign products is the security problem behind the system." In order to get rid of the dependence on foreign satellite communication technology, Wei Wu chose to start his own business.

In June 2017, Nanjing Controlway Communication Technology Co., Ltd. was formally established, specializing in satellite communication technology R&D, equipment manufacturing and service support.

With the relevant patented technologies transferred from Nanjing Mobile Communication and Computing Innovation Institute of the Institute of Computing Technology of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wei Wu introduced many satellite communication industry experts from PLA University of Science and Technology in Nanjing, forming an entrepreneurial team with deep core technical barriers.

Through scientific research tackling, the Controlway Communication team has developed a complete satellite communication system with fully independent intellectual property rights, and all its technical indicators have reached the leading domestic level.

The flagship product of Controlway Communication — the portable satellite communication terminal, has a backpack weight of only 8 kg, and only takes three minutes to set up. The product can work for more than 3.5 hours, which is almost twice that of similar competing products. The device has a built-in Wi-Fi hotspot, and all functions in the terminal can be called by connecting to a dedicated mobile APP.

Products under the "Controlway" brand have been widely used in national defense, emergency response, fire protection, energy and other industries.

At about 10:30 on August 26 this year, a sudden debris flow disaster broke out on the Nepalese side, affecting Gyirong Port in Xizang, causing heavy casualties and missing people. The surging debris flow completely destroyed roads and ground communication infrastructure, vehicles were completely unable to reach the core disaster area, and the scene fell into an extreme dilemma of broken roads, power outages and network disconnection. Rescue forces could only advance deep into the disaster area on foot.

Controlway Communication launched the emergency response immediately, quickly assembled an advance technical team, carried one set each of CWP600C and CWP350C portable satellite stations, and coordinated with two sets of CWP600C devices of the local public security, followed the Sichuan Fire and Rescue Mobile Corps, Sichuan Fire and Rescue Corps and Xizang Fire and Rescue Corps, and advanced on foot to the core area of the most severely affected Gyirong Port.

The advance team relied entirely on land hiking, climbed over high mountains and steep cliffs, trudged hard among rocks and mud, and traveled for more than 10 hours to reach the front line of the disaster area.

After arrival, the carrying protective bag of one CWP600C had been severely damaged. However, when the team members took out the device, unfolded the antenna and pressed the start button — the portable satellite station could still start normally, quickly complete satellite alignment and establish a stable communication link, and the hard and durable product strength was fully verified in the harsh actual combat environment.

Statistics show that in recent years, the business of Controlway Communication has continued to grow rapidly, with the contract value increasing from 200 million yuan in 2023 to 400 million yuan in 2025, and the compound annual growth rate exceeds 40%.

In the past three years, the company's cumulative R&D investment was about 120 million yuan, accounting for more than 16% of the revenue, which is a typical R&D-driven enterprise. The company's cumulative financing was about 400 million yuan, and the latest round of financing was jointly completed by China Internet Investment Fund, Yida Capital, Nanjing Venture Capital, CITIC, Jinyumaowu, Yangzhou Economic Development Zone and other institutions, with a current valuation of nearly 2 billion yuan. At present, the company is carrying out share reform to prepare for IPO.

Robots Also Need to "Take Classes"

In Nanjing's first robot 6S store, Radar Finance saw robots with different functions: some robots are fighting warriors, while others are good at playing football.

What impressed Radar Finance deeply was a robot that was "cross-legged". A peer sighed: "This is the first time I have seen such a leisurely robot."

It is reported that Nanjing's first robot 6S store was established in 2026, located in Jiangning Air-Ground Digital Intelligent Industrial Park, Nanjing. It is a key enterprise that first implemented the innovative service mode of "robot 6S store" in Nanjing. Relying on the mature operation system of global robot 6S stores, based on Nanjing's local industrial characteristics and market demand, the company focuses on building a robot experience and service demonstration store radiating the Nanjing metropolitan area, providing scenario support for supplementing, extending and strengthening the chain of the regional intelligent robot industry.

The store innovatively builds a "six-in-one" full life cycle service system, covering six sections: sales, spare parts, service, personalized customization, leasing and science popularization research, promoting the formation of new paradigms for robot industry service standards and supply-demand docking.

At present, the store has gathered high-quality robot brands at home and abroad, covering multiple categories such as humanoid robots, quadruped robots, care robots, educational robots, industrial robots, etc. It provides full-link services from product selection to after-sales maintenance, from short-term leasing to in-depth customization for diversified customer groups including family users, enterprise customers, educational institutions and scientific research units, building a complete closed loop of "display experience — scenario application — service implementation", providing strong support for the large-scale application and high-quality development of Nanjing's intelligent robot industry.

It is worth noting that not far from the robot 6S store, there is also the largest outdoor real-scene training base for quadruped and wheel-legged robots in East China. The base is equipped with standardized multi-terrain, combined real-scene, interactive and open functional areas, including 29 scenarios such as deep sand area, water pool, combined ramp, complex terrain pavement, etc., which reproduce real application environments such as factories, urban operation and maintenance, and emergency operations.

According to local media reports, on a combined ramp with slopes of 20 degrees, 30 degrees and 40 degrees, quadruped robots shuttle flexibly through five terrains such as cement ground, muddy road and grassland; on the plastic track, quadruped robots and wheel-legged robots run towards the distance at speeds of 3.5 meters per second and 5 meters per second respectively; in a tunnel with a diameter of 1.2 meters, robots replace humans to drill holes for inspection; robots equipped with dual-light cameras scan railway sleepers with high quality...

In the training base, robots must complete all the "compulsory courses" and pass all the exams before they can "graduate" and enter the market.

Why Are Jiangning's "Little Giants" Thriving?

Among the enterprises visited this time, the quadruped robot from Nanjing Jingyao Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. also left a deep impression on Radar Finance.

On the evening of August 19, the report titled "Expanding Capacity and Improving Quality of the Service Industry to Help China's Manufacturing Industry Enhance Global Competitiveness" on CCTV's *News Network* showed that the four-wheel four-drive robot vehicle of Jingyao Intelligent drilled into the train trench, completing tens of thousands of safety inspections under the train instead of inspectors.

The visited company also includes Tianfu, a national-level specialized and sophisticated "little giant" enterprise. As a global leading enterprise in the industrial world model, it deeply integrates physical AI and industrial AI, and is committed to building a full-stack intelligent infrastructure for the manufacturing industry from "understanding the physical world" to "optimizing production decisions".