Chinese UAV/UCAV development

Here is Henri K take on the recent air drop test of Tengden company


The young Chinese pushing Tengden (腾盾科技), specialized in the development of UAVs and created there only two years, continues to be talked about by achieving the first emergency supplies drop test in China by its drone TB001 "Scorpion dual tail."

The test was conducted on behalf of the Chinese giant SF Express , the second largest logistics player and shipping of the country after the China Post, based on a real case of use of Huawei , another Chinese telecom giant . The scenario simulates the rapid delivery of emergency repair supplies by a drone for a ground relay station that has suffered damage as a result of a natural disaster, and the necessary equipment could not be routed through the ground route.

The drone of nearly three tons was off on December 26 from an airport in Yunnan, a very mountainous province in southeast China. After thirty minute flight, the "Scorpion dual tail" is down to three hundred meters before dropping a cargo pod designed for parachuting. Huawei's staff then retrieved the package to the floor and then proceed to "repair".

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Note that the vice president of SF Express , LI Dong Qi (李东起), which is also responsible for air operations and a new subsidiary delivery by drone group, attended the trial. He said that the cargo drones will make a proposal more consistent in the fleet of the company, and that other drone capacity exceeding one ton will emerge quickly.

With first base routing and delivery by drone based in Sichuan province, Li plans to set up a distribution network "dronisée" to reach in less than 36 hours all Chinese third-tier cities and ¹ below. For this, the network will be based primarily on three categories of cargo drone - "line" with a capacity of several tons, regional class ton terminal and up to tens of kilo - a bit like the segmentation of air transport.


A drone trying to deliver medicine to a remote village in China

The TB001 drone used in this test was designed by Tengden in thirteen months. It measures 10 meters long, 20 meters wide and can carry up to 1200 kg payloads. The craft which carried out can take off and land in standalone mode, "clicking" the statement of the company and reach a speed of 250 km / h and a ceiling of 6000 meters . Its flight autonomy is given to 3 000 km.

Apart from the two MALE drones and TB001 TA001 smaller and two armed hélidrones, Tengden also introduced a cargo drone project with a capacity of 20 tons. Powered by eight reactors and obviously designed with a double fuselage configuration is close Stratolaunch , a carrier aircraft for space launches, but no timetable is clearly communicated to date.


The new cargo UAV project with a capacity of 20 tons of Tengden (Photo: 铁 背心)

Henry K.



¹ - Chinese cities are categorized by rank. Metropolises like Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Xi'an ... etc are among the 19 first-tier cities. China currently has 70 third-tier cities, 90 of 129 fourth and fifth.

Love it. This is what science and tech should really be used for. Pity we have to build weapons too to defend against the "problematic" people of the world.

Allegedly an official AVIC model of the Sharp Sword UCAV.

Looks like it is going to have a similiar EOTS diamond as the J-20 under nose.

Wonder if it also will have SAR.

by78 said:

Allegedly an official AVIC model of the Sharp Sword UCAV.

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However it seems different to the original demonstrator configuration - especially on the exhaust - so it might be the alleged revised no. 02?

Deino said:

Is this the original demonstrator configuration or the alleged revised no. 02?

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The poster didn't say. The model has '001' painted on it, same as the demonstrator. However, judging by its stealthier exhaust, this isn't the original demonstrator, so I'm leaning toward this being the revised design.

New video of Yi long 2 precision missile launched

Hendrik_2000 said:

New video of Yi long 2 precision missile launched

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Well that was mildly........... disappointing. I was expecting more than just a puff of dirt in the ground.

Viktor Jav said:

Well that was mildly........... disappointing. I was expecting more than just a puff of dirt in the ground.

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Have you never heard of inert warheads? They're testing the guidance system, not the kaboom section.