Flying as daily transportation, drones for food delivery, eVTOL flying across city skyline… These scenes that used to only appear in sci-fi movies are coming into reality. In 2026, low-altitude economy begins to develop into scalable applications.

As drone logistics, low-altitude cultural tourism, and urban air mobility have rapidly implemented, the value of low-altitude economy market in China has exceeded RMB 1.5 trillion, with 160,000 related companies.

However, when eVTOL, drone, flying car move from “viable” to “commercial available”, market competition gets more intense – vehicles have to be both lightweight and strong, ensuring safety and durable in complicated environment. Material has become a key in the commercialization of low-altitude economy.

At CHINAPLAS 2026, Evonik, Covestro, Rianlon, Sinopec, Datong Yulong, Kingfa Science, LFT (Xiamen) and other companies have presented their material innovations for low-altitude economy.

Safety as first priority

Low-altitude flying vehicles have to operate in complicated environment, including high temperature and humidity, strong UV light, and strong wind turbulence. Therefore, the vehicle materials have to meet stringent requirement on weather stability, durability, impact resistance, flame retardant, heat insulation and more.

For critical areas around battery pack, the standards for temperature, insulation and flame retardant are even higher. In extreme cases such as thermal runaway, the vehicle has to remain structurally intact.

In material selection, common structural parts are made of common engineering plastics such as PA, PC, POM, PPO and TPE, which meet basic flame-retardant, strength and stability requirements. While advanced engineering plastics that can withstand temperature higher than 150°C, including PPS, PEEK, and PI, are used in high-heat area, battery pack, and core protection parts, offering outstanding heat resistance, flame retardancy, and aging resistance for long and stable operation under extreme conditions.

Evonik’s ROHACELL PMI foam is light but provides impressive mechanical strength. It can be applied in critical structural parts in eVTOL, ensuring the vehicles lightweight but overall stability. In face of the challenge of thermal runaway during operation, Evonik’s VESTAMID PA12 supports stable operation of battery and power system in extreme conditions.

Evonik’s solutions for eVTOLs.

Covestro’s transparent PC has low density, high transparency, and high impact resistance. With ultra-thin structural design, the material can be used in windshields, resulting 50% lighter compared to traditional glass windshields. Its encapsulation polyurethane foam technology is also used for thermal runaway protection for batteries, as well as coating system for protection and optimization in lightweight of the whole flying vehicle.

Covestro’s solutions for eVTOLs.

Rianlon presented U-pack B8119 which enhances long-term heat aging resistance under 150°C high temperature. The company’s U-pack UV-703 also offers UV durability, color protection and gloss protection for interior and exterior. It does not impact coating adhesiveness, and is odor-less, meeting interior & exterior VOC/FOG emissions requirements. These significantly enhance material stability and durability in complicated operation environments.

SINOPEC’s high strength and flexible self-reinforced PP sheets for low-altitude flying vehicles. It features integrated structure, high rigidity, outstanding impact resistance comparable to glass fiber with density only <0.9g/cm³, which is 40% lighter than glass fiber, 67% lighter than aluminum alloy. The material is also low VOC and can also be fully recycled after use.

Carbon fiber-reinforced PA composite material has high rigidity and impact resistance, as well as outstanding fatigue and creep resistance. The material can be used in propeller blade and machine arm parts.

SINOPEC’s solutions for drones.

Lightweighting: Reducing weight for longer endurance

For flying vehicles like eVTOLs, drones, lighter weight means longer endurance, more carrying capacity, lower energy consumption and operation cost. Therefore, lightweight materials are ideal for vehicle body.

Under this context, Datong Yulong, Kingfa Science, LFT (Xiamen), and Orinko showcased their lightweighting materials for low-altitude flying applications.

Datong Yulong’s long carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic (LCFT) targets for drone and flying vehicle structural parts. It ensures rigidity and 10-30% lighter weight, making material breakthrough in rigidity, lightweight, and flexibility.

Kingfa Science’s KingPan is a composite panel combining thermoset polymer and carbon fiber. It features high rigidity and low density, with rigidity 4 times higher than aluminum but only half of its density. The material can be used in drone parts, meeting performance requirement while reducing weight at the same time, significantly improving endurance of drones.

Kingfa’s solutions for drones.

LFT (Xiamen) showed its long carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastics, which features lightweight, ultra-high rigidity, flame retardant, and weather resistance. It helps achieve weight reduction and cost reduction in vehicle body and drone propeller.

From new energy to low-altitude economy: Multiple applications of long fiber composite materials

Orinko’s carbon fiber product series features lightweight, high tensile strength, and corrosion resistance, which support weight reduction in drones, reducing energy consumption and enhancing endurance and operation stability. It also solves the previous industry challenge of heavy weight and corrosion in metals.

Orinko’s solutions for drones.

WOTE Advanced Materials and Genius Advanced Material offer high-performance engineering plastic as alternative to metal structural parts for eVTOL and commercial aerospace applications.

WOTE’s solutions for low-altitude economy.

Cost reduction: Innovative process for mass production

From prototype to mass production of low-altitude flying vehicle, automated manufacturing solutions are also essential. Automation not only enhance efficiency in mass production, it also reduces production cost and accelerates industrialization of flying vehicles.

Haitian International’s injection molding and automation solutions for drone propeller have standardized manufacturing procedures for this core parts:

• Drone propellers and clamps molding and assembly in one flow

• Precision control within ±0.05mm

• Production efficiency enhanced by more than 30%

• Significantly reduces human assembling process

KraussMaffei’s FiberForm process is a fully automated combination of thermoforming and thermoplastic overmolding. Compared to conventional metal part manufacturing, this process shortens flying vehicle part production time to only 2 minutes. This enhances production efficiency and reduce cost while maintaining same structural rigidity and flying safety.

Conclusion

In the development of low-altitude economy, challenges and opportunities occur at the same time.

In one path, applications continue to expand, product portfolios are getting more mature, overall industry is accelerating to scale up; in another path, material and manufacturing systems continuously make breakthroughs in safety, lightweighting, weather resistance and mass production.

For plastics and rubber industries, these are not simply an extension to an application, but also a chance to upgrade high-performance materials and manufacturing ability.