China’s Rainbow Solar UAV to Make Maiden Flight

2017-03-16

China’s aerospace engineers boast the “Caihong” is the world’s largest solar-powered drone, dwarfing NASA’s Pathfinder series that never made it into mass production. The prospect of the drone leading in disaster monitoring is in the horizon.

A large-scale solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), latest in the “Caihong” (rainbow in English) series produced by the China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics (CAAA), will make its maiden flight by midyear, China.org.cn has learnt.

The UAV will seek to reach near-space, an altitude above where commercial airliners fly, but below orbiting satellites.

Such a vehicle is commonly referred to as an “atmospheric satellite” in that it can function as a low-orbit satellite to a certain extent. A solar UAV can perform sustained surveillance and information-relay over a region.

It usually features longer hovering time, higher communication capacity and higher image resolution than a usual reconnaissance satellite that can only visit a designated region periodically. Besides, the price of a solar UAV and its launch cost are far lower than a satellite.

The Chinese vehicle has a wingspan of more than 40 meters. It has eight propellers installed on the front of the wings fully covered by solar panels. Its designer, CAAA’s chief UAV engineer Shi Wen, calls it the world’s largest solar-powered drone, even dwarfing the US NASA Pathfinder series that never made it into mass production.

Shi said his UAV is among the world’s top three in terms of its overall performance indicators and technical capabilities.

Super-high service ceiling, super-long endurance and easy maintenance are the three key aspects to ensure solar drones to perform a leading role in such fields as extensive aerial reconnaissance, disaster monitoring and communication relay.

The Chinese vehicle can easily stay airborne for months. “If we don’t consider the life span of the parts, this kind of aerial vehicle could theoretically fly forever,” said its designer.

The challenges in designing a solar drone mainly involve its aerodynamic layout and wing configuration, because there was no established template to follow. Shi said that a higher lift-to-drag ratio, to optimise the drone’s aerodynamic layout, was essential, and this was something the CAAA had built its reputation upon.

CAAA is a subsidiary of the NASA-like China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. Its principal mission is to test the aerodynamic performance of China’s aerial and aerospace vehicles, including rockets, space modules and atmospheric reentry-vehicles of long-range projectiles.

CAAA started to develop the Rainbow drones to break the monopoly of the US drones such as Global Hawk and Reaper in the global arms market. CH-3 and CH-4 are the star products of the Rainbow series. They have already displayed their capabilities in geological and maritime surveillance at home as well as anti-terrorism activities in the Middle East and Africa.

At the International Defense Exhibition (IDEX) 2017 held in Abu Dhabi last month, Saudi Arabia announced it would manufacture certain types of Rainbow UAVs, after inking deals with CAAA. Military insiders claim the CH-4 has a strong possibility for mass manufacture, but no comment was available from CAAA.

Source: uasvision.com

Region: Asia-Pacific
Contry: China
Category: UAV

2020-03-12

Behind the scenes of a Chinese drone maker operation during COVID-19

As the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) slows in China, the country has seen an orderly resumption of work to reboot its economy. The Chinese agriculture technology company XAG is one of the first companies obtaining work resumption approval from government. It has restarted business in its Guangzhou headquarters early on February 10, with an overall 90% work resumption rate of its R&D staff on the first day. To fulfil the large purchasing orders of agricultural drones for the farming season, XAG has also set up a 20-million-yuan relief fund for its supply chain partners who struggle to reopen their factories.

According to China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, only 52 percent of small-to-medium sized enterprises have returned to work as of 6 March. While the coronavirus outbreak put many businesses into difficult situation because of the longer-than-expected closure, XAG has already resumed operations in both its headquarters and manufacturing center. Five key measures have been strictly put in place to ensure that work resumes orderly without compromising the efforts to contain the highly contagious virus.

2020-02-13

Drones used to disinfect Chinese village from coronavirus

Drones are being used in Chinese villages to spray disinfectant in response to coronavirus throughout the village, to hopefully make the village a little safer to walk around in. The drones are being used around China and are being converted to help out.
A villager in Heze, Shandong province, is using his crop spraying drones to spray disinfectant over the village. The drones will be used to spray an area of around 16,000 square meters.

2019-12-12

Chinese Air Combat Drone Types Caught By Satellite

Chinese Air Combat Drone Types Caught By Satellite

A satellite image that was posted on Chinese internet shows an impressive lineup of the Chinese military aerial drones, some of which are in development while others are operational.

The lineup occurred at Malan Air Base, a known hub of testing for these types of systems. The image is yet another stark reminder of how China is betting big on unmanned aerial military capabilities, from high-end unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs) to swarms of small expendable drones.

2019-08-23

Remote GeoSystems Conducts BVLOS Geospatial Video Pipeline Inspection in China

Remote GeoSystems, Inc., a global provider of immersive geospatial video, photo and data recorders and reporting software for survey and inspection, and Xi’an ARTEL Technology, Inc., China’s leading developer/operator of beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) inspection UAVs, are pleased to announce the successful deployment of complementary geospatial data systems for long distance day and night drone pipeline patrol operations.

2019-08-15

EHang to Build Autonomous Drone Network to Cover Chinese Metropolis

Residents of Chinese metropolis Guangzhou can soon expect to see autonomous drones flitting over the city after drone manufacturer EHang announced the launch of its first urban air mobility pilot city program this past week.

2017-04-07

New Chinese Drone for Export

China is the largest exporter of military drones today, and it is ready to place a new model on the international market. The TYW-1, developed by Beihang University in Beijing, one of China’s top institutes for science and technology, is an unmanned aircraft for reconnaissance and combat based on the BZK-005 high-altitude, long-range reconnaissance drone, which the university also developed.

2017-04-03

China to Open a Drone Factory in Saudi Arabia

China will construct a new facility to produce unmanned aerial vehicles in Saudi Arabia, following a recent visit from Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud Salman.

2017-03-30

China’s Anti-Drone Gun Tested

Authorities in China have now begun field-testing their latest anti-drone “gun” that is capable of taking down any un-welcomed drone. Police officers in the country were recently armed with the new drone jamming gun at a big soccer game in Wuhan, China. Any drone that trespassed within the event’s premises were disabled and forced to land through the system’s signal jamming capabilities.

2017-03-14

China to Introduce Real-Name Drone Registration

The head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has said that the government will introduce new rules to regulate China’s drone industry as unregulated flights have been causing problems.

2016-11-10

China’s Turbojet-Powered Cloud Shadow

The Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) unveiled the Cloud Shadow, a turbojet-powered, medium/high-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) at the Airshow China 2016 exposition, which was held in the southern city of Zhuhai from 1 to 6 November.

Back to the list

Reports

2021-05-05
Development of the world market of UAV during COVID-19 pandemic

The drone market has grown steadily and continuously over the past several years. The technology is here to stay and is becoming more prevalent across numerous industries. But 2020 was a unique year due to Covid-19. Overall, respondents even felt that the changes in business models triggered by the lockdowns would actually have a positive impact on the drone industry in the long run.