by78
General
High-resolution images of the maiden flight of the new Tengoen/Tengden cargo UAV.
Decent footage.
Chinese MALE, HALE (and rotary, small, suicide) UAV/UCAV thread
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
Decent footage.
High-resolution images of the maiden flight of the new Tengoen/Tengden cargo UAV.
Very cool! Surprised there haven't been more of these designs world wide considering it seems like a useful drone configuration that wouldn't be too difficult to implement.
Imo it's basically a full plane at that point, the regulations around something this big autonomously taking off and landing on major airports is probably still very murky.
I believe that such UAVs are not ultimately intended for usage at major airports and will instead perform shuttling of 'small' amounts of cargo from points A to B using short landing strips.
However, regulations on autonomous flight and how this will be managed by regional air traffic controllers remains to be seen.
lcloo
Captain
They don't use major airports as there are hundreds of secondary airfields in China which will be/are being used by UAVs as part of the Low Altitude Economy, they are subject to different sets of regulations, example maximum height of flights allowed for UAVs is 1,000 metre.
Sure, but something this big is basically a different ballgame compared to your run of the mill delivery drone, there would ideally be stricter guidelines on flying over populated areas, it's the size of a bus.
If anything, the rules for full sized UAVs like these should be more aligned with commercial aircraft rather than UAVs.
lcloo
Captain
UAVs for commercial deliveries do have specific flight routes that need approval from the Civil Aviation Agency of China. You can not flight wherever you wanted to. The strict regulation is already in place.
And this large UAV is considered as a light aircraft, thus limiting it to 1,000m or 3,000 feet altitude, on a regulated specific flight routes would not pose problems. It is not a good idea to fly large slow UAVs on high altitude where normal civil aviation aircrafts operate as this will pose complexity to the air traffic controls.
This type of large UAVs will mostly use for remote out posts, islands, small towns or cities where demand of freight volume is low, and where regular freight aircarft or trains services are not available, thus they will not likely be on the same routes. Part of the Low Altitude Economy is to develop inter-cities and inter-provinces transportation by UAV.
by78
General
FP-985 long-range fixed wing UAV
- Max takeoff weight: 5700kg
- Payload: 2000kg
- Ceiling: 8000m
- Endurance: 8 hours
- Cruising speed: 220 - 260km/h
- Takeoff distance: ≤500m
More on the FP-985 unmanned transport. The maiden flight was on 9/18/2022, and it has accumulated 10,000km in test flights.
I'm actually not sure about this image, if it is legit or once again faked, but if real, then it is per my understanding the first one showing a PLAAF H-6MW drone-carrier with the real WZ-8 high speed high altitude UAV.
(Image via @linxk001 via Huitong's CMA-Blog)
(Image via @linxk001 via Huitong's CMA-Blog)
First time we’ve seen this live?