How does this one work? Based on the text on the poster it seems that this thing could change directions instantaneously in mid air?
Chinese UAV/UCAV development
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plawolf
Lieutenant General
This is only how I would have approached this design problem, and may differ from what they actually did.
But if I was to design such an air vehicle, I would have the four pointed star wing as a single piece structure, with the propulsion package under the wing and the command module and vertical stablisers above it, with the top and bottom modules locked in sync with each other and the wing sandwiched between them.
During flight, the top and bottom modules would be able to rotate in sync with each other, but independent of the wing structure. So the nose and engine exhaust can be repositioned 45, 90 or 180 degrees away from the direction the plane is currently traveling in as quickly as the modules could rotate. During rotation, if you keep the engines at military power, you can have a little bit of a poor man's 2D TVC effect going on, and once the modules have realigned and locked in place vis-a-vis the wing, you can kick in afterburner and effect extreme directional change almost instantaneously.
Looking at the blunted ends of two of the points of the star wing and the highly swept design of the vertical stablisers, I believe this thing was designed to go supersonic. If it was only intended to operate in the subsonic range, four pointed ends, or even a saucer layout would have been better.
Its an interesting and very innovative approach to super agility, but one which could only be applied to UAVs as the G forces involved in such maneuverering would render any human pilot unconscious or worse.
In terms if real world application, I think ultimately, it could provide the basis for an extreme agility anti-air UCAV, but the C&C and AI element for such UCAVs are still decades away. As such, the most immediately applicable function I can see for this design is as an active scanning recon drone for extremely hostile air defence environments. In effect act as a forward deployable AEW platform.
The drone would carry a small but powerful 360 degree scanning radar and datalink and actively scan hostile airspace for targets, particularly VLO ones. When the enemy tries to engage it with traditional SAMs or AAMs, the drone would use its extreme agility and the scan data from the radar to dodge the incoming missiles with a very high success ratio.
Such drones coupled with your own VLO air dominance fighters could form a very effective and cost effective counter to enemy VLO air dominance fighters. Or operating independently, could be a very effective maritime surveillance drone specialising in hunting modern carrier battle groups.
Quickie
Colonel
This is probably in relation to the nytimes news in above post.
China refutes hacking, drone technology theft claims
English.news.cn 2013-09-24 18:44:26
BEIJING, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday refuted reports claiming that China may be hiring hackers to steal U.S. drone technology, saying the claims are "groundless" and "inconducive" to China-U.S. cyber security efforts.
"We have taken notice of relevant reports. These reports are groundless and inconducive to the cooperation between China and the United States to promote cyber security," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a daily news briefing.
Hong said the achievements China has made on economic development and technology are the result of efforts by Chinese people, the continued investment China has put in research and development, and China's increased innovation abilities.
China and the United States have established a cyber security working group, said Hong, adding that the two sides have conducted smooth communication.
China refutes hacking, drone technology theft claims
English.news.cn 2013-09-24 18:44:26
BEIJING, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday refuted reports claiming that China may be hiring hackers to steal U.S. drone technology, saying the claims are "groundless" and "inconducive" to China-U.S. cyber security efforts.
"We have taken notice of relevant reports. These reports are groundless and inconducive to the cooperation between China and the United States to promote cyber security," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a daily news briefing.
Hong said the achievements China has made on economic development and technology are the result of efforts by Chinese people, the continued investment China has put in research and development, and China's increased innovation abilities.
China and the United States have established a cyber security working group, said Hong, adding that the two sides have conducted smooth communication.
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Skywatcher
Captain
Frankly, the most complicated part of the UAV is the software part, and China wouldn't want to reverse that too closely, for obvious reasons.
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
Some of the sleekest looking prop UAVs.
Here's the Harrier III that was posted before.
I wonder if they can easily changed it to a turbofan jet engine version.
Here's the Harrier III that was posted before.
I wonder if they can easily changed it to a turbofan jet engine version.
Better to rerun the design program and end up with a similar bur new design. Computer time is cheap enough.
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