Entrepreneurs watch their dreams fly

The company was formally founded on Dec 12, 2012, and Men was able to attract 15 of his former team members to his new company with share-incentive options. Now the company enjoys a highly qualified staff of 38 employees.

On Dec 27 last year, the company's first unmanned aircraft for civil uses was purchased by a Beijing-based company.

The aircraft weighs 38 kilograms and is both 3 meters long and wide. Fully fueled with 14 liters of gasoline, it can keep flying for five hours at a speed of 300 kilometers per hour and at a height of 2,000 meters.

"It's not the final success for which we have longed for years. We've just got the dream a pair of wings," Yao says.

He says that the company is now one of the three top Chinese private firms engaged in R&D and manufacturing of civil unmanned aircraft, which have a broad scope of applications including surveying and mapping, agriculture, transportation and disaster response.

A new factory, which covers an area of 36,000 square meters with a total investment of 150 million yuan ($24.69 million), will soon be completed and put into use in 2014.

The company plans to invest 1.5 to 2 billion yuan through cooperation with the local government to build a general aviation airport in Huaibei city. An aviation club and a general aviation service firm are also in planning stages.

"As aviation authorities are expected to loosen their grip on low-altitude airspaces as early as this March, we feel more confident about the future development of our company," Yao says.