Henri speculate that Tianying is analogue of X47B
And if "Tian Ying" is a stealthy onboard drone?
BY
Since its first three test flights that took place this winter, between December 2017 and January 2018, there is almost no news of the stealth drone "Tian Ying" (天鹰). Its designer, the 3 rd academy group missile and aerospace Chinese CASIC, remained particularly silent on this long-endurance flying wing drone, having unveiled some blurred photos of the aircraft a few months ago.
But some elements appeared recently and seem to come to support , which consists in saying that this umpteenth Chinese flying-wing drone could have as launch client the naval forces of the Chinese army.
In fact, the images of a flying-wing drone taking off from an aircraft carrier are seen on the placards in a meeting room of the Institut 302, all made public in a weekly video report at the end of August this year, knowing that this entity is the design office responsible for the design of the drones within the 3ᵉ academy of CASIC, and therefore that of the drone "Tian Ying".
We then see a drone of an aerodynamic configuration similar to that of the American X-47B, with a fuselage and diamond-shaped wings, both of which do not have the same angle of deflection unlike other flying-wing drones. comparable in size, such as nEUROn from Dassault, Taranis from BAE, Skat from MiG or Sharp Sword from the AVIC Institute 601.
Such a choice could be motivated by obtaining a better loading efficiency and aerodynamics. A larger scale would also meet the need for range and flight duration due to greater finesse.
All this is to the detriment of the stealth of the aircraft compared to the configuration of simple arrow angle, but seems to be justifiable if the craft is brought to operate on board an aircraft carrier. We find the same configuration on the drone part of the European Future Air Combat System (SCAF).
Knowing that the 302 Institute is currently working on several projects in parallel, we can not be certain that the images seen so far are representative and correspond to the "Tian Ying", but this possibility should not be dismissed as There are now at least two clues that suggest that the design office could work on an embedded drone project, the first being that the ground control stations of the "Tian Ying" drone were in camouflage of the Chinese navy.
The drone Tian Ying, described by its designer as "Stealth and flying wing" (Photo: CASIC)
While waiting for other elements to confirm or deny this, some details about the "Tian Ying" drone have been unveiled in
, about a drone pilot at the Institute. 302.
"YU Xin still remembers his participation last year in the mission of the first flight of a certain flying-wing stealth drone, [...] it is probably the mission in which he worked the least," says an article. appeared on the Weixin account of Haiying Aviation General Equipment Co., Ltd., another subsidiary of the 3ᵉ CASIC Academy, "All he had to do is enter a few parameters (in the checkpoint) and to press a few buttons before takeoff. The drone took care of all the other steps alone ... "
We also learn that the drone in question returned in real time images taken by the camera on board, and that the craft flew over "montages and rivers", without revealing the location of this first flight.
To be continued.
Henri K.