At the beginning of the new year, many places have launched a "grab to fly" layout. Shanghai takes the lead in speaking out, aiming to move towards the "world eVTOL capital"; Shenzhen aims to accelerate the layout of aviation takeoff and landing facilities with the goal of becoming the world's first city in low altitude economy; Jiangsu Province has released the "official map" of the province's unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) suitable airspace... The "first year of scale" of low altitude economy has begun. As a typical representative of new quality productivity, the low altitude economy has the characteristics of high technological content, concentrated innovation factors, and long industrial chain, and its development has attracted global attention. In 2025, driven by the release of policy dividends, breakthroughs in core technologies, and the implementation of application scenarios, China's low altitude economy will successfully achieve a key leap from conceptual exploration to scenario verification, and the "takeoff" of industries will become a new engine for economic development. Standing at the beginning of the 15th Five Year Plan, the low altitude economy is entering a golden window period of policy system improvement, infrastructure network formation, and explosive application scenarios, injecting strong momentum into economic growth with a high-quality development trend. The improvement of the policy system has deepened from "framework construction" to "detailed implementation". It was first included in the government work report at the beginning of 2024, and by the end of the year, the National Development and Reform Commission established the Low altitude Economic Development Department. Then, by 2025, a series of heavyweight policies at the national level will be announced. The low altitude economy is rapidly moving towards a new stage of "systematic promotion and large-scale development". One of the important deployments of the "15th Five Year Plan" proposal approved at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China is to clearly list the "low altitude economy" as one of the national strategic emerging industries and cultivate and strengthen it. This means that the low altitude economy has risen from a pilot exploration in individual regions to a major strategy for coordinated promotion at the national level, and its industrial status has undergone fundamental changes. The top-level design has outlined a development blueprint for the low altitude economy, and significant breakthroughs have been made in legal protection and standard regulations. By 2026, the support policies for the low altitude economy are comprehensively deepening from "framework building" to "detailed implementation". At the level of legal protection, the newly revised Civil Aviation Law of the People's Republic of China will officially come into effect on July 1, 2026, adding a special chapter on "development promotion" for the first time, clarifying the classification and grading management rules for low altitude below 300 meters, establishing a precise regulatory system for new formats such as eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft), and solving the vague problem of airspace management that restricts the large-scale development of the industry. In terms of standard specifications, the mandatory national standards of "Real name Registration and Activation Requirements for Civil Unmanned Aerial Vehicles" and "Operation Identification Specification for Civil Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems" will be officially implemented from May 1, 2026, clearly requiring the realization of "one aircraft, one code, and full traceability", and the "who can fly" and "who is flying" of unmanned aerial vehicles will have rules to follow. The synergistic effect of policy implementation is continuously being released, and at the beginning of the new year in 2026, many parts of the country will focus on deploying low altitude economy in the "first meeting of the new year". As of now, several provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government) including Guangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hubei, Chongqing, Liaoning, and Guizhou have successively reviewed and approved local "15th Five Year Plan" proposals, and have included the development of low altitude economy in their future development blueprints, ushering in a new wave of national layout for low altitude economy. Among them, many places have clearly defined their local development priorities in the suggestions and deployed specific low altitude economic development paths according to local conditions. On December 10, 2025, the first domestically produced 800 kilogram heavy-duty electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, AR-E800, successfully made its maiden flight, marking a microcosm of China's continuous efforts to strengthen technological breakthroughs and achieve a "zero to one" breakthrough in the field of low altitude economy. At present, key links in the low altitude economy industry chain continue to break through, from core equipment production to infrastructure construction, and innovative achievements continue to emerge, empowering the acceleration of large-scale commercial landing of low altitude economy. In the field of core equipment, eVTOL, as the core carrier of low altitude economy, continues to expand its industrial scale. In 2026, it will usher in a "certification and mass production year", and multiple mainstream products are expected to complete model certification and enter the stage of large-scale delivery. Relevant institutions predict that the eVTOL market size in China will increase to 9.5 billion yuan by 2026. The drone industry continues to expand, and according to relevant data statistics, the market size of China's civilian drones is expected to reach 176.1 billion yuan by 2025, and the market size will increase to 402.5 billion yuan by 2030. In 2026, low altitude infrastructure will enter a period of concentrated construction. In terms of takeoff and landing facilities, Shenzhen is expected to build over 1200 low altitude takeoff and landing points by 2026, covering four major areas: manned flights, logistics transportation, community distribution, and urban governance services; Suzhou plans to build over 200 vertical takeoff and landing points by 2026, paving the way for eVTOL urban air traffic ahead of schedule. In terms of communication networks, low altitude intelligent networking, as a core component of the "new air infrastructure", is accelerating breakthroughs in the integrated construction of "communication, guidance, sensing, and management", laying a solid support foundation for the safe operation of low altitude economies on a large scale. The three major telecommunications operators are accelerating the deep integration of 5G-A technology with low altitude scenarios, and various regions are accelerating the layout of "new air infrastructure". Shanghai will gradually achieve low altitude intelligent connectivity network coverage based on 5G-A in stages and regions, and by 2026, a low altitude communication network with continuous coverage of low altitude flight routes will be initially established; Shenzhen plans to build the Low Altitude Intelligent Fusion System (SILAS) by the end of 2026, achieving comprehensive monitoring of key low altitude airspace in the city 24/7. The outbreak of application scenarios has shifted from "pilot demonstrations" to "large-scale commercial use". When Shenzhen's unmanned eVTOL carries tourists overlooking the city landscape, when Zhejiang's food delivery packages fly into customers' hands with rotors, and when Yangtze River sailors can receive fresh food delivered by drones with just a tap of their phones - the acceleration of low altitude economy is shifting from strategic blueprints to industrial reality, integrating into production and life in a visible and tangible way. In 2026, with further breakthroughs in key core technologies and increasingly improved infrastructure, the application scenarios of low altitude economy will shift from "pilot demonstration" to "large-scale commercial use", forming a diversified industrial development pattern of "low altitude+logistics, tourism, medical care, commuting", and the commercial value will be fully released. In the field of logistics and distribution, Meituan drones have opened more than 50 operating routes in Shenzhen, completing over 1.4 million delivery services. By 2026, they will further expand their night delivery and cross regional delivery scenarios, extending their service coverage to major cities in the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area; In the field of medical and emergency care, the low altitude emergency line opened in Tianjin Binhai New Area has reduced the cross regional transportation time of blood and emergency drugs from 1 hour to 18 minutes; In the field of urban commuting, the Shenzhen Zhuhai intercity route is expected to open in 2026, with a one-way flight time of about 20 minutes and a single seat ticket price estimated at 200-300 yuan. In addition, the substitution effect of drones in forest fire prevention, earthquake relief, agricultural crop protection and other fields is significant. The efficiency of a single crop protection drone is dozens of times that of manual labor... The continuous improvement of the industrial ecology will promote the continuous expansion of the low altitude economy market. CCID Research Institute predicts that by 2026, the market size of China's low altitude economy will exceed 1.06 trillion yuan, officially entering the trillion level industry. Soaring upwards, setting sail for trillions. In 2026, the low altitude economy is entering a triple explosion period of policy, technology, and demand. In the crucial year of large-scale development, it will achieve an important transformation from "policy driven" to "performance realization". Standing at a new starting point of development, the low altitude economy will continue to unleash its development potential and become an important growth pole for promoting high-quality economic development. (New Society)