PDLP Chapter 36 Visitors from Xiangtian
Chapter 36 Visitors from Xiangtian
On August 15th, the new production line on the third floor officially started construction.
Su Chen stood in the brand-new production area, watching the two previously installed assembly lines start operating for the first time. The more than twenty new employees recruited three weeks ago had passed their on-the-job assessments and were now distributed across various workstations—welding, assembly, firmware writing, integration testing, and inspection. Each workstation had an operation manual posted on the wall, and the tools on the shelves were arranged neatly according to their positions.
Zhou Ming stood to the side, holding the production capacity report that had just come out that morning.
"With the three existing production lines on the second floor and the two new lines on the third floor, all five production lines operating at full capacity, daily production will increase from the original 25 units to 120 units. The total monthly production capacity will be approximately 3,600 units."
Su Chen slightly raised his head.
The scene of producing 25 units a day just four months ago seems like it was just yesterday. Now, production capacity has increased nearly fivefold.
Alongside this expansion, the organization's size also grew—the number of production workers increased from over thirty to over one hundred and thirty, the field sales team expanded from eight three-person groups to fifteen groups spanning ten provinces, and the management and technical staff also continued to expand. The company's total headcount has now exceeded two hundred.
Four months ago there were fifty-two people.
"Once production capacity is in place, the bottleneck for waist-slimming products will shift from the manufacturing end to the sales end," Su Chen told Zhou Ming. "The core issue now is whether orders can fill all five production lines."
The weekly shipment report suggests an optimistic outlook—the sales team's weekly sales exceeded 250 units and continued to rise, while the F2 standard version sold through the distribution channels maintained stable shipments, with weekly revenue remaining above 450,000 yuan.
But Su Chen did not slow down his pace because of this.
The competitive climate has changed significantly.
Just last week, an industry news story prompted Zhou Ming to come and report: Tianying suddenly announced a price reduction for its Flying Eagle II, from 2299 to 1999, making it completely on par with the F2 working version. At the same time, Tianying established over fifty dealerships in South and East China, comprehensively penetrating second- and third-tier cities.
Same price point, same positioning—this is a direct price clash.
"The Flying Eagle II has dropped to the same number?" Zhou Ming's expression was clearly worried when he reported this.
"It was expected." Su Chen's reply was calm.
Tianying invests several times more in promotion each year than Hongyuan's annual revenue. It is fully capable of lowering the price of the Flying Eagle II to a loss-making level to capture users' minds—because Tianying's main revenue comes from its mid-range product line, and low-end models are just outposts for attracting customers, so losing some money is not a big deal.
Hongyuan cannot do this. The F2 work board is the lifeline; if that lifeline is severed, the entire company will collapse.
"Don't be nervous." Su Chen patted Zhou Ming on the shoulder.
"The Skyhawk's strategy of lowering prices to increase sales volume can only last a few months and is unsustainable. Meanwhile, the F2's flight control performance is clearly superior at the same price point—a fact that the Skyhawk's offer cannot change."
"In a market where prices are roughly equal, product differentiation is our armor. Small businesses buying drones for work don't look at brands; they only care about stability and image quality. Put two drones of the same price side-by-side for a test flight, and the answer will be clear."
After saying that, he added, "We can ignore the price wars that involve everything from eyebrows to beard. What's truly urgent is—accelerating the construction of our second growth engine. The agricultural drone project has already started. Our partner from Hunan will arrive tomorrow."
The next morning, the two flew from Changsha to Shenzhen.
The older man, surnamed Liu, named Liu Gang, was in his early forties. He had a dark, thin face and spoke with a strong Hunan accent. His company, Xiangtian Agricultural Energy Technology, had been working in agricultural machinery for over a decade and began attempting to transition to agricultural drones two years ago.
Accompanying him was Xiao Zhou, the technical supervisor, 35 years old. His work clothes were faded from washing, and his knuckles were always soaked in lubricant—clearly someone who spent most of his time between the workshop and the fields.
Su Chen and Zhang Lei greeted them in the conference room on the second floor.
Liu Gang is a man who lacks leniency; after sitting down, he got straight to the point in just three sentences.
"Mr. Su, Xiangtian has been working on agricultural drones for two years. We've finalized the payload structure, the drone head shape, and the tank layout, and the assembly process is fine—we originally made agricultural fogging equipment, so we have a lot of experience in this area. But what's been holding us back is the flight control system."
His tone carried the bitterness characteristic of a genuine person.
"Plant protection drones and your aerial photography drones are not the same category. They have a heavy payload—the entire aircraft weighs over 25 kilograms when fully loaded with pesticide. They operate in harsh environments—farmland is windy, the terrain is rugged, and there are many obstacles. They require even application—the amount of pesticide applied per acre cannot deviate too much. All these pressures are concentrated at the flight control level."
Xiao Zhou added, "We've tried several general-purpose flight control boards on the market—they can lift off the ground, but their stability is far from good. Hovering accuracy under load is questionable, and their wind resistance is substandard. The biggest headache is the mismatch between flight path planning and pesticide application rate—in actual operation, too much pesticide is applied at the edges of the plots, while insufficient application is used in the center, which farmers don't accept."
Su Chen and Zhang Lei exchanged a slight nod.
Su Chen had already spent over a month studying the DJI MG-1's design in the virtual disassembly lab to address these difficulties. While agricultural applications and consumer applications are indeed two different worlds, the underlying logic of flight control—attitude control, sensor fusion, and motion compensation—is interconnected.
"Mr. Liu, could you please let us see the technical documents for your mechanical design?"
Liu Gang looked up at him directly.
"To be honest, we came here with all the data." He pulled a disk from his backpack. "Mechanical drawings, headstock specifications, medicament tank pressure curves, takeoff weight distribution—it's all in here."
Su Chen took the storage medium and handed it to Zhang Lei.
"Is a week enough?" he asked Liu Gang.
"enough."
"I will send you a preliminary flight control adaptation framework in seven days. It's not a finished product, but a proof of concept at the architecture level—but it will allow you to determine whether our underlying flight control system can solve your pain points."
Liu Gang's perspective shifted: "An architectural plan in seven days?"
"First draft," Su Chen corrected his wording, "not a finished product, but rather a solution approach at the structural design level. However, it's enough to prove that our flight control system's underlying technology is capable of meeting your needs."
Liu Gang glanced at Xiao Zhou. The latter nodded slightly.
"Alright. We'll see in seven days."
After the meeting, Su Chen led the pair on a tour of the production line. Liu Gang didn't pay much attention to the assembly details; his focus was on a flight show in the open space outside the factory. Xiao Wu piloted the F2 workpiece, completing a full sequence of maneuvers—climb, hover, circle, abort return, and precise landing.
After reading it, Liu Gang didn't say anything, but unconsciously tapped his thigh rhythmically with his fingertips—Su Chen recognized this as a subconscious little action when weighing the pros and cons in his mind.
It was Xiao Zhou who spoke first.
"Mr. Su, if your flight control system can maintain this level of precision even under a 25-kilogram load—then our machine is truly alive."
Su Chen's lips curled slightly. The simulation results in the virtual disassembly lab were certain—but he wouldn't reveal them beforehand.
"Let the proposal speak for itself. See you in seven days."