Chinese UAV/UCAV development

by78 said:

An unknown UAV type. This could be the beginning of another carefully choreographed leak.

Click to expand...

tphuang said:

Looking at the audience, it doesn't seem to be an important project.

Click to expand...

Looks like an aero nautical or engineering class demonstration.

tphuang said:

Looking at the audience, it doesn't seem to be an important project.

Click to expand...

The J-31 was first 'revealed' to the public as a mockup done by college kids. It was unceremoniously hung sideways on the wall of a rather nondescript garage/workshop type of place.

Anyhow, there is definitely something to this model. The line art by 'grassroots' has been around for a while and seems to match this model.





Then, there is this from well over a year ago (note the red carpet to walk on for VIPs):

layout looks like the RQ180

TerraN_EmpirE said:

layout looks like the RQ180

Click to expand...

I wondered if these have been reverse engineered from the downed RQ-170, but these Chinese drones first appeared barely 16 months after Iran captured RQ-170. Seems too short of a time frame for reverse engineering.

Anyway, here are a few more photos from the same video, which I don't have:







Prof. Zhang Weihong, a composite material expert:





Edit note: when I wrote 'RQ-180', I actually meant 'RQ-170'. Corrected.

by78 said:

I wondered if these have been reverse engineered from the downed RQ-180, but these Chinese drones first appeared barely 16 months after Iran captured RQ-180. Seems too short of a time frame for reverse engineering.

Click to expand...

The Drone the Iranian's captured the was the RQ170 which is maybe a generation behind the RQ 180. The RQ180 is supposed to be newer however RQ180 is more or less light Grey in Category where RQ170 was supposed to be Black, although it was rumored it was never admitted until The Iranians got one. RQ180 is newer but was plastered all over Aviation week openly taking it form Black to very very bright grey making me think that there is some other Drone meant to be operated in Black.

TerraN_EmpirE said:

The Drone the Iranian's captured the was the RQ170 which is maybe a generation behind the RQ 180. The RQ180 is supposed to be newer however RQ180 is more or less light Grey in Category where RQ170 was supposed to be Black, although it was rumored it was never admitted until The Iranians got one. RQ180 is newer but was plastered all over Aviation week openly taking it form Black to very very bright grey making me think that there is some other Drone meant to be operated in Black.

Click to expand...

Ooops... When I wrote RQ-180, I actually meant 'RQ-170'.

To my eyes, this Chinese drone resembles RQ-170 more than the 180. It looks like a RQ-170 with proportionally longer wings, but I do concede how you might see it as closer to RQ-180.

TerraN_EmpirE said:

The Drone the Iranian's captured the was the RQ170 which is maybe a generation behind the RQ 180. The RQ180 is supposed to be newer however RQ180 is more or less light Grey in Category where RQ170 was supposed to be Black, although it was rumored it was never admitted until The Iranians got one. RQ180 is newer but was plastered all over Aviation week openly taking it form Black to very very bright grey making me think that there is some other Drone meant to be operated in Black.

Click to expand...

The "stealth blackhawk" used in the operation to take out Osama bin Laden has managed to keep a blacker profile than either the RQ-170 or RQ-180. I would think a much larger stealthy U(C)AV with global range has to be in use, not just the Predator C.

RQ 180 was outed intentionally Meaning it was intended to got White Why else Would Aviation Week not just show pixilated grainy shots from some guy camped out just outside the wire at a nonexistent Airbase in the middle of Navada they got full beauty shots.
RQ170 is a different story but it was leaked as "the beast of Kandahar"
I made the Comment that it looked like RQ180, But "looks" are Subjective. I don't think it was a Clone I think it's Form and Function RQ 170 is belived to have started out as a tactical surveillance platform, The First known member of the line being the "DarkStar" then came Polecat Which is so close to RQ170 it's like looking at a Father and Son. Polecat was shown off in about 2006 at the Farnborough International Airshow It was supposed to be cooked up form Lockheed marten Skunk Works internal project so very much in the White, then Ironically in december of that year Polecat crashed at Nellis.
If I were to guess on this Drone Concept I would say it was inspired by Polecat back in 2006 it was worked on in the background until the RQ170 incident when the higher ups gave it the Afterburner.

by78 said:

I wondered if these have been reverse engineered from the downed RQ-170, but these Chinese drones first appeared barely 16 months after Iran captured RQ-170. Seems too short of a time frame for reverse engineering.

Anyway, here are a few more photos from the same video, which I don't have:

Prof. Zhang Weihong, a composite material expert:

Edit note: when I wrote 'RQ-180', I actually meant 'RQ-170'. Corrected.

Click to expand...

Cool stuff. Where is this video from?