Chinese UAV/UCAV development
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I wonder if the vehicle becomes one shade darker for every launch due to being fried by the rocket exhaust, or special paint coatings take care of that.
Hendrik_2000
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From Henri K blog
CASIC flies its new flying-wing stealth drone
BY
The CASIC group, the main missile of all kinds in the Chinese defense industry, has also embarked on the drone race and remains determined to compete with players already well established in the market such as the aircraft manufacturer AVIC, or yet the other major national aerospace group CASC. According to several official publications published last week, its subsidiary Institute of Aviation Technology (中国 航天 科 工 飞航 技术 技术 研究院 研究院), better known by its former name of "the 3rd Academy of CASIC", recently flew a new drone "stealth and long endurance".
The press has given some interesting indications on the three recent flights but does not contain any images. We learn then that the inaugural flight of the drone called " Tian Ying ", 天鹰 in Chinese which means the eagle of the sky literally, took place "at the beginning of the winter", in other words about the last December, followed by the second flight a month later (January 2018?) and then the third to ten days apart.
The text gives little technical details on this drone, qualified by its builder as being stealthy and long-endurance, but we know, for example, that it took off in a wind force of 3 on the Beaufort scale for its first flight, that its development goes back four years ago, and that 80% of technologies used are new, some of which are unpublished at the "world level".
It is in another article published on the Weixin account of the Hai Ying Institute (海鹰 机电 技术 研究 设计院), export entity of the 3rd CASIC Academy, that the first and only pictures of the drone in question are appeared but blurred.
Flying Wing Stealth UAV "Tian Ying" from the 3rd Academy of the CASIC Group (Photos: CASIC)
We then see a fixed-wing drone, with a span estimated at about 10 to 12 meters and without any empennage, surrounded by the development and test teams. This is obviously a flying-wing drone that is added to the already long list of drones in this category developed by other Chinese institutions.
Given the quality of the images and especially that they were concealed voluntarily, the only point we can say is that the air intake of this Tian Ying would be triangular, as for most stealthy flying wing drones of the world, which is to say that the drone would use a turbofan or turbojet engine. And given the relatively small size of the machine, we tend to a drone dedicated to support tactical reconnaissance and ground surveillance for troops, like the RQ-170 Lockheed Martin, but with a greater autonomy not the 24 hours.
The ground station for the command of the drone Tian Ying (Photo: CASIC)
The old camouflage of an amphibious tank of the Chinese Marine Corps
It is not known for the moment who will be the first customer of the drone, but the text of CASIC mentions that a part of financing comes from the group itself, which implies that the project is at least partially financed by a possible purchaser, which could be one of the Chinese army corps.
And the camouflage of the ground station of the drone, which is close to an old camouflage of the Chinese Marines, could designate the Chinese amphibious forces as the possible interested. But it seems rather unwise to base the conclusion on a physical resemblance of camouflage so this remains to be confirmed.
Aside from the stealth drone, that it has started several development projects around solar drones and "new concept" like those of "Near Space".
Note that the Chinese manufacturer has long experience in the design of air-surface cruise and anti-ship cruise missiles, and has already proposed on the market a wide range of target drones and high-speed drones. One example is .
The fast armed drone WJ-600A / D designed by the 3rd academy of the CASIC group
At the level of the flying-wing drone, one can find for example a university document, published by the same institution in 2015, on . This date is therefore consistent with the planning of the Tian Ying program, where development began four years ago according to the CASIC press release.
After a long list of Chinese Flying Wing UAV projects, such as the Sharp Sword Institute 601 Shenyang (AVIC), Wing Loong X Institute 611 Chengdu (AVIC), CH-805 and CH-X of the Chinese Aerospace Group CASC, the NWPU University Project, and now the Tian Ying of CASIC, the question arises as to who will be the next Chinese institute to work on this segment of very narrow drones.
And if it is NORINCO, the group of land armaments, which has a priori nothing to do with the "sky" ??
Henri K.
CASIC flies its new flying-wing stealth drone
BY
The CASIC group, the main missile of all kinds in the Chinese defense industry, has also embarked on the drone race and remains determined to compete with players already well established in the market such as the aircraft manufacturer AVIC, or yet the other major national aerospace group CASC. According to several official publications published last week, its subsidiary Institute of Aviation Technology (中国 航天 科 工 飞航 技术 技术 研究院 研究院), better known by its former name of "the 3rd Academy of CASIC", recently flew a new drone "stealth and long endurance".
The press has given some interesting indications on the three recent flights but does not contain any images. We learn then that the inaugural flight of the drone called " Tian Ying ", 天鹰 in Chinese which means the eagle of the sky literally, took place "at the beginning of the winter", in other words about the last December, followed by the second flight a month later (January 2018?) and then the third to ten days apart.
The text gives little technical details on this drone, qualified by its builder as being stealthy and long-endurance, but we know, for example, that it took off in a wind force of 3 on the Beaufort scale for its first flight, that its development goes back four years ago, and that 80% of technologies used are new, some of which are unpublished at the "world level".
It is in another article published on the Weixin account of the Hai Ying Institute (海鹰 机电 技术 研究 设计院), export entity of the 3rd CASIC Academy, that the first and only pictures of the drone in question are appeared but blurred.
Flying Wing Stealth UAV "Tian Ying" from the 3rd Academy of the CASIC Group (Photos: CASIC)
We then see a fixed-wing drone, with a span estimated at about 10 to 12 meters and without any empennage, surrounded by the development and test teams. This is obviously a flying-wing drone that is added to the already long list of drones in this category developed by other Chinese institutions.
Given the quality of the images and especially that they were concealed voluntarily, the only point we can say is that the air intake of this Tian Ying would be triangular, as for most stealthy flying wing drones of the world, which is to say that the drone would use a turbofan or turbojet engine. And given the relatively small size of the machine, we tend to a drone dedicated to support tactical reconnaissance and ground surveillance for troops, like the RQ-170 Lockheed Martin, but with a greater autonomy not the 24 hours.
The ground station for the command of the drone Tian Ying (Photo: CASIC)
The old camouflage of an amphibious tank of the Chinese Marine Corps
It is not known for the moment who will be the first customer of the drone, but the text of CASIC mentions that a part of financing comes from the group itself, which implies that the project is at least partially financed by a possible purchaser, which could be one of the Chinese army corps.
And the camouflage of the ground station of the drone, which is close to an old camouflage of the Chinese Marines, could designate the Chinese amphibious forces as the possible interested. But it seems rather unwise to base the conclusion on a physical resemblance of camouflage so this remains to be confirmed.
Aside from the stealth drone, that it has started several development projects around solar drones and "new concept" like those of "Near Space".
Note that the Chinese manufacturer has long experience in the design of air-surface cruise and anti-ship cruise missiles, and has already proposed on the market a wide range of target drones and high-speed drones. One example is .
The fast armed drone WJ-600A / D designed by the 3rd academy of the CASIC group
At the level of the flying-wing drone, one can find for example a university document, published by the same institution in 2015, on . This date is therefore consistent with the planning of the Tian Ying program, where development began four years ago according to the CASIC press release.
After a long list of Chinese Flying Wing UAV projects, such as the Sharp Sword Institute 601 Shenyang (AVIC), Wing Loong X Institute 611 Chengdu (AVIC), CH-805 and CH-X of the Chinese Aerospace Group CASC, the NWPU University Project, and now the Tian Ying of CASIC, the question arises as to who will be the next Chinese institute to work on this segment of very narrow drones.
And if it is NORINCO, the group of land armaments, which has a priori nothing to do with the "sky" ??
Henri K.
Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
Another Chinese flying-wing drone being developed at the CAAA Institute of the aerospace group CASC.
This photo first appeared in the Xinhua News Agency's report on the 2014 Zhuhai Aviation
Exhibition.
Exhibition.
Last edited:
Could it be for targeting practice to simulate opposition fighters. Smaller size brings down its RCS and makes it harder to hit so the actual drone won't need to be made to F-35 level execution. Alternatively it's a UCAV and this is a scaled down mockup. There doesn't seem to be any shortage of mockups, ideas, and programs. Which one/s will make it into production and PLAAF we will find out in many many years 
The caption says Changkong 20 highspeed stealth targeting drone
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