China's domestically developed "Qingqibing" small and medium-sized solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) successfully completed its maiden flight on Tuesday, according to the 11th Research Institute of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).
now it makes sense i can identify w your confusion because i used to see it the same way until it came time for my undergraduate project that my university required of all its hardware engineering students – a private company forked over cash and other resources for my student group to create a display for the handicapped and they started calling it a commercial product even though it took another decade for it to be sold; but it made sense since they were using it – and us – to peddle it to manufacturers/investors a little bit like they do on shark tank.
the product was working and we had a makeshift factory to build them, but only a select group of buyers could purchase them and i’ve since learned that this is a common initial stage for many commercial products that end up being purchasable by either you or i.