General Aviation and Satellite Industrial Park

In May, 2015, the Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone (Hannan), referred to as the WHDZ, established seven industrial parks based on its current industrial mix and long-term planning. The General Aviation and Satellite Industrial Park was one of them. The park is located at Daju area in the southern part of Wuhan, covering a planning area of 24.75 square kilometers. The park will become a destination for investment overseas, a center for infrastructure planning and an enterprise service provider.  

The park has started its construction in aviation industry infrastructure and aims at balanced development of upstream-downstream industries such as the manufacture and sale of general aircraft, airport services and operations, research and development of satellite equipment and supporting business services. A new industrial mix with the manufacture of navigation devices, satellites, and new energy and smart emergency facilities as the main driver will be formed by 2020.

The park has now attracted leading programs in the four strategic emerging industries. The Wuhan AVIC-VAST Navigation Industry Comprehensive Demonstration Zone holds total investment of 28.3 billion yuan ($4.29 billion). The FBO project for the Wuhan International Aviation Engineering Center, a part of the program with investment of 1 billion yuan, has started its construction and will be put into operation within this year. The park has signed a strategic cooperation agreement on the program of the Wuhan International Aero Sports Industry Center with Aero Sports Association of the United States (ASA), with total investment of 16 billion yuan. The preliminary work is underway. The park has also signed the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System application demonstration program, construction of which will begin soon. Other programs like the Wuhan Kaiwo new energy vehicle manufacturing program and a manufacturing program of emergency equipment in emerging heavy industries are under construction and are expected to be operational within this year. Infrastructure construction centered on the airport is in full swing. Hannan General Airport was chosen as the host location of the first World Fly-in Expo (WFE) in November 2017 and as one of the competition fields of the 2019 Military World Games.

The park will start its development in the air sports industry with the general aviation and satellite industries as the core and gradually become an influential base for R&D, manufacturing and maintenance of navigation products. The park also aims at developing into a leading aviation base and exclusive service center in central China. It will gradually build a complete industry chain of manufacturing of satellite and ground equipment and satellite application. With all these steps, the park will finally turn into an industry cluster district with the national satellite industry international innovation park as the core.

During the period of the 13th Five-Year Plan, the park will cultivate three to five general airframe manufacturers, six to ten key supporting enterprises, five to seven navigation operators and more than twenty key service providers. Meanwhile, it will incubate ten to fifteen enterprises in satellite equipment production and applications. It is expected that the park will build a comparatively compete navigation satellite industry mix including manufacturing of general airframes of small aircraft and equipment, pilot training, operations and maintenance, exhibitions and transactions, and headquartering of satellite manufacturers and satellite service providers.