Big Breakthrough for China’s Flying Car! On January 23rd, the "Dongda Kunpeng 2" land-air integrated flying car developed by the Flying Car Research Team of Southeast University made its first public appearance at Jiulonghu Campus. It slowly lifted off, crossed the lake, and steadily landed on the open-air platform of Sanjiang Building in less than 2 minutes, completing a stunning debut.

The Iteration Journey of SEU Kunpeng Flying Car

On January 2nd, 2025, the Flying Car Research Team of Southeast University launched China’s first distributed electric-driven flying car, "Dongda Kunpeng 1". Compared with traditional electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that lacks ground mobility, the "Dongda Kunpeng 1" has both the fast mobility of ground transportation equipment and the flexible mobility of air transportation equipment.

Launched in 2026, the upgraded "Dongda Kunpeng 2" is lighter and more compact with foldable robot arms, enabling more free and rapid shape conversion, as well as more flexible and efficient completion of various scheduled tasks.

As the first-generation test and verification platform, the "Dongda Kunpeng 1" successfully verified the basic integration of the two major systems of flight and ground driving, realized the physical combination of "car driving" and "aircraft flight" functions, and completed an important technical exploration for the feasibility of manned flying cars.

On the basis of inheriting the core concept of land-air integration from the first-generation platform, the "Dongda Kunpeng 2" has undergone a comprehensive scenario-based repositioning, focusing on professional operation scenarios and striving to provide efficient and reliable solutions.

Future of “Dongda Kunpeng 2”: Redefine Commercial Scenarios

As a composite operation platform integrating air flight and land driving, the "Dongda Kunpeng 2" is designed to focus on multi-functional adaptability, high task reliability and seamless operation experience of land-air integration. It aims to provide efficient solutions for professional operation scenarios and is a positive response to China’s 18-character guideline for the development direction of the low-altitude economy: "Cargo first, then passengers; isolation first, then integration; suburban areas first, then urban areas".

The "Dongda Kunpeng 2" flying car is a redefinition for large-scale commercial scenarios. With "easy cargo carrying and convenient driving" as the design starting point, the platform innovatively adopts a foldable arm structure to solve the pain points of parking and driving. Relying on the redundant and safe flight configuration, strong load capacity, innovative land chassis and high-precision navigation system, it builds an efficient, reliable and seamless land-air professional operation platform, providing a powerful tool for the practical development of the low-altitude economy in fields such as logistics, inspection and emergency response.

Source: SEU News Network

Written by: Leah Li

Edited by: Leah Li