From January to February 2026, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), CITIC Offshore Helicopter Co., Ltd. (COHC), and AutoFlight jointly successfully completed the world's first 2-ton electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) material transportation mission to an offshore oil platform. This transportation compressed the 10-hour voyage of traditional shipping to 58 minutes, not only achieving a revolutionary breakthrough in the offshore material supply model, but also marking that global low-altitude logistics has officially bid farewell to the single land scenario and entered a new stage of land-sea integrated development, demonstrating China's leading strength in low-altitude equipment application and logistics innovation.
As the core hub of offshore oil and gas development, offshore oil platforms have long faced industry pain points such as low efficiency, high costs, and delayed emergency response in material supply. For a long time, material transportation to China's offshore oil platforms has mainly relied on ships and traditional helicopters. Among them, shipping is significantly affected by marine meteorology, ocean currents and other factors, and the one-way travel time is often more than 10 hours, making it difficult to meet the timeliness needs of emergency medicines, key components and other materials; although traditional helicopters can shorten the transportation time, they have high operating costs, large noise pollution, and are subject to many restrictions on take-off and landing sites, making it impossible to achieve regular and large-scale supply, which has become an important bottleneck restricting the efficient development of the marine oil and gas industry.
The 2-ton eVTOL that completed the transportation mission this time was independently developed by AutoFlight. It is the world's first large-scale cargo eVTOL that has obtained the Type Certificate (TC), Production Certificate (PC) and Individual Airworthiness Certificate (AC). Adopting a composite wing configuration, it has a maximum take-off weight of 2 tons, a load capacity of 400 kilograms, an applicable range of 200 kilometers, and a cruising speed of up to 200 kilometers per hour, which is tailor-made for operations in complex scenarios. To cope with the harsh offshore environment of high salt spray, high humidity and strong gusts, the project team carried out comprehensive sealing treatment on the core systems of the aircraft, added protective devices to key sensors, and specially optimized the flight control system for the characteristics of offshore air currents, ensuring the safety and stability of the flight process.
The success of this transportation mission is inseparable from the joint efforts and professional guarantee of the three parties. As a leading enterprise in offshore oil and gas development, CNOOC provided real offshore operation scenarios and material transportation needs, and coordinated the adaptation and renovation of the take-off and landing area of the Huizhou 19-3 oil platform; AutoFlight was responsible for providing core equipment and ensuring the technical reliability and flight safety of the aircraft throughout the process; COHC gave full play to its more than 40 years of general aviation operation advantages, coordinated global collaboration and full-process escort, realized full-process monitoring relying on China's first intelligent tower, coordinated the formulation of airspace clearance plans, ensured the safe flight of eVTOL in isolated operation mode, and built a full-process service system of "take-off guarantee - route monitoring - landing supply".
From 10 hours to 58 minutes, this leap is not only an exponential improvement in transportation efficiency, but also a landmark achievement of in-depth integration of low-altitude logistics technology and the marine industry. The completion of this mission has for the first time verified the technical feasibility and operational reliability of the 2-ton eVTOL in complex offshore environments, solving the industry pain points of material supply for offshore oil platforms — compared with traditional shipping, the transportation efficiency has been improved by more than 10 times, greatly reducing the time cost and safety risks in the material transportation process; compared with traditional helicopters, the operating cost has been reduced by more than 80%, and zero emissions and low noise have been achieved, which is in line with the national "dual carbon" strategy and the concept of green energy development.
From the perspective of industrial development, the success of this world's first transportation has far-reaching industry significance and strategic value. In the field of offshore oil and gas, it has opened a new chapter for the regular service of eVTOL to offshore platforms. In the future, it can be widely used in material supply, emergency personnel transfer, platform facility patrol and other scenarios, injecting new momentum into the upgrading of the traditional marine energy industry; in the field of low-altitude logistics, it has broken the scenario barrier between land and ocean, promoted the extension of low-altitude logistics from "short-distance land" to "land-sea linkage", improved the application scenario layout of low-altitude logistics, and provided a replicable and promotable "China Solution" for the development of global low-altitude economy.
At present, the low-altitude economy has become an important growth pole for nurturing new quality productive forces, and China has formed a first-mover advantage in eVTOL R&D, airworthiness certification, scenario application and other fields. The offshore oil platform transportation mission completed by the three parties' cooperation this time is not only a strong proof of the maturity of China's low-altitude equipment technology, but also a vivid practice of in-depth integration of industry, university, research and application. With the continuous deepening of the reform of low-altitude airspace management and the continuous iteration and upgrading of eVTOL technology, low-altitude logistics will further achieve global coverage of land, sea and air in the future, play an important role in more fields such as marine development, emergency rescue and fresh food transportation, and inject new strong momentum into high-quality economic development.
