On October 31, 2026, the 10th International Electric Aviation (Kunshan) Symposium was held in Kunshan, Jiangsu. Wu Qiong, Founder and CEO of Blue Vector, was invited to attend. At the Chairmen’s Roundtable, on the theme “The Manufacturing Revolution: Thoughts on eVTOL’s Leap from Prototype to Mass Production,” he drew on the SKYLA V30 development experience to share his thinking on eVTOL technology and engineering deployment.

Configuration Choice: Partial Tiltrotor

Each eVTOL configuration has its own characteristics, but the value of a technical approach lies not only in flight performance, but also in whether it can balance safety, system complexity, and engineering feasibility.

Drawing on the SKYLA V30 development experience, Wu Qiong shared the technical rationale behind the partial tiltrotor configuration. He noted that the aerodynamic characteristics, power demands, and control requirements differ greatly across the stages of transition flight, and that during transition the rotors, wings, propulsion system, flight control, and aerodynamics are very tightly coupled. Aerodynamic and flight control models must be built and then validated step by step through simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and actual flight tests.

Engineering Validation: Laying the Groundwork for Large-Scale Manufacturing

A prototype that can fly does not mean the product is ready for mass production. True large-scale manufacturing tests whether product design, test validation, and the manufacturing process can form a stable, repeatable engineering system.

Wu Qiong believes eVTOL development needs to connect data baselines, test matrices, models, and engineering processes, and to build digital collaboration capabilities that cover requirements, design, validation, and manufacturing. Through digital prototypes and model-based systems engineering (MBSE), traceability and system-level collaboration efficiency in the development process can be improved, so that manufacturing requirements are fully considered from the design stage.

Respect for Safety: Across the Entire Product Lifecycle

In the closing exchange with industry peers, Wu Qiong said: “For a crewed aircraft, a successful prototype does not mean a successful product, and a successful product does not mean a successful industry. A successful prototype comes from breakthroughs in key technologies; a successful product comes from meeting the needs of real use cases; and a successful industry comes from the joint progress of upstream and downstream players across the industry chain.”

Wu Qiong stressed that safety should not be a condition added after a product’s design is complete, but should run through design, development, test validation, manufacturing, and future operations. Only by continuously strengthening technical, engineering, and airworthiness capabilities can eVTOL truly move from technological exploration to large-scale application.

From choosing the technical route, to building the engineering system, to managing safety across the full lifecycle, Blue Vector will continue to draw on the SKYLA V30 development experience and advance product development and engineering deployment with a rigorous, pragmatic approach.