Xie Baogang and his green rotary-wing aircraft. (Photo/Beijing News)
(ECNS) -- Chinese video-streaming app Kuaishou said it will cooperate in investigations after users were found touting homemade aircraft on its platform. Producing and selling unlicensed aircraft is illegal in China.
Some Kuaishou users have uploaded mobile videos about devices that can fly, hover or carry a person and do stunts in the air.
Xie Baogang, whose username is "feitianshaojiang", published 327 short videos on Kuaishou showing various scenes, including how he skimmed along the ground in a small green rotary-wing aircraft before ascending to the sky.
Xie said his rotorcraft are produced at his factory in Dezhou City, Shandong Province, and priced at 130,000 yuan ($19,000) to 350,000 yuan, depending on the engines, which are imported from Austria. He also said that he had run the business for seven years and that most of his customers are flying enthusiasts. Xie had nearly 250,000 fans on his page.
Other Kuaishou users, selling similar aircraft that can fly 200 to 300 meters above the ground, had about 100,000 fans.
All the aircraft were found to be manufactured in workshops with no permits from aviation authorities. Some sellers also admitted that they assembled components that they had purchased on their own. They also encouraged buyers to fly in rural areas where flight supervision is thought to be lax.
Aviation expert Zhang Qihuai told Beijing News that there are supervision loopholes regarding low-altitude flight in China, due to a lack of effective monitoring equipment. All rotorcraft sold on the Kuaishou app are illegal and the producers may face fines, said Zhang.
