My first drone flight:
the future of mobility
In brief
My recent experience trying two personal flight platforms in Hangzhou did not just allow me to experience a technology that, until recently, still felt far away. It also helped me understand something more important: the low-altitude economy is beginning to take shape as a new layer of mobility, logistics, and operational capability. It is still at an early stage, but in China there are already some fairly clear signs of where this field may be heading.
Introduction
After fourteen years living in Hangzhou, I am still struck by how naturally certain technologies stop feeling futuristic here and begin to feel tangible.
Hangzhou has established itself as one of China’s most dynamic technology hubs, and in that context I was recently invited to visit a drone company to see some of its solutions firsthand. Among them were two personal transport platforms that I was able to try myself.
The experience was unforgettable and revealing, not only because of how striking the flight itself was, but also because of what it suggests about a possible future evolution of mobility.
Flying isn´t an abstract idea anymore
The first of the two aircraft I tried was a multirotor drone with a cabin. You sit down, fasten your seatbelt, and almost without transition, the flight begins. The initial feeling is difficult to describe: a mix of strangeness, fascination, and a very clear awareness that you are experiencing something that, until recently, seemed confined to science fiction.
From inside the cabin, the movement feels surprisingly stable. In my case, I have a certain fear of heights, and that made me a little uneasy before takeoff. But once in the air, the sense of balance was solid enough for that initial concern to fade quickly, replaced by a more powerful impression: that I was glimpsing a form of transport that, although not yet part of everyday life, no longer feels so distant.
A different platform, a different logic
I also had the chance to try a second type of drone, different both in concept and in the experience it offers. In this case, it was not an enclosed cabin, but a platform on which you travel standing up while holding onto a handlebar. Direction is not controlled with a joystick, but through body lean.
The feeling changes completely. It is a more physical, more exposed, and probably more demanding experience for the user. Precisely because of that, it struck me as a platform with a different logic: less oriented toward comfort and more versatile for certain operational, emergency, or even defence-related uses.
For this second model, it was mandatory to wear a safety jacket equipped with an airbag, designed to activate in the event of a sudden loss of altitude or a sharp pull on the harness. In both cases, of course, wearing a helmet was also mandatory.
The real challenge
The most interesting thing about all this is that the technology no longer belongs only to the conceptual realm. In China, and in other countries as well, it is already possible to observe fairly advanced developments in personal air mobility.
But the real challenge is not simply getting these aircraft to fly. It lies in everything that must be built around them for this form of mobility to be deployed with real guarantees: safety, regulation, training, airspace management, emergency protocols, maintenance, insurance, and public acceptance.
That is, in fact, one of the most important points. The paradigm shift does not consist simply of adding a new machine to the transport system, but of opening up a new layer of mobility that will require its own operational architecture.
key idea
The most interesting part is not the machine itself, but what it anticipates: a new infrastructure for mobility, logistic and operational capacity.
From flight to low-altitude economy
Some time ago, I wrote about robotics as a modular, standardised, and reconfigurable technology. Something similar applies to drones. A drone should not be understood only as a specific device, but as an aerial platform that can be adapted to very different uses depending on its configuration, payload, navigation system, sensing layer, and the environment in which it operates.
And this is where the flight experience begins to connect with something broader: the low-altitude economy.
Because the same technical logic that makes it possible to lift a person in a controlled environment can also be applied to agricultural drones, inspection platforms, aerial logistics, firefighting, territorial surveillance, rescue-zone lighting, or facade cleaning and maintenance. And of course, to intelligent governance as well. The value of the drone does not lie only in the aircraft itself, but in its ability to be reconfigured for very different functions.
Spain and Europe
also take part in this game
As a Spaniard and a European, there is something regarding this topic that I find especially encouraging: serious initiatives are also beginning to emerge in Spain and across the continent. The case of ITG Technology Center, for example, shows that relevant capabilities are also being developed here in civil drone integration, advanced testing, unmanned airspace management, emergency operations, and urban air mobility. That does not erase the current advantage in scale and integration that can be observed in China, but it does make clear that Europe is not starting from zero.
A final thought
Sometimes the future does not arrive through grand declarations, but through concrete experiences that suddenly alter our sense of what is possible.
That was, for me, the most interesting part of this flight in Hangzhou: not only the sensation of taking off, but the awareness that certain technologies that until now seemed distant are already beginning, little by little, to enter an operational phase.
In my case, this experience has not remained a one-off visit. I have recently started collaborating with this company to support its international expansion, which is allowing me to continue observing up close not only its personal flight platforms, but also other solutions related to construction, agriculture, logistics, emergencies, and inspection.
If you are interested in learning more about these technologies, their applications, or the Chinese ecosystem in which they are being developed, feel free to contact me directly.
Contact us if you want to learn more about these technologies and the ecosystem that supports them.
