FarkTypeSoldier
Junior Member
Its a strange design. Why are the main wings fixed to the tailfins?
To improve aerodynamics?
But its a nice bird to watch.
Chinese UAV/UCAV development
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Its a strange design. Why are the main wings fixed to the tailfins?
To improve aerodynamics?
But its a nice bird to watch.
It's called a box wing design, and it's meant to give structural support to high aspect ratio wings and reduce induced drag.
Fu Wen Shi
New Member
So this is the Chinese version of the Global Hawk?
More smaller but HALE.
Xianglong is 14.33m long, global hawk is 14.5m-ish.
Obviously global hawk has a greater wingspan, but Xianglong uses a box wing configuration which brings its own aerodynamic benefits.
Xianglong is quoted to have a range of 7000km, but I think that is understated given its similar size to RQ-4A/B, and is likely a constraint of limited chinese satellite coverage of the globe rather than a limitation of the airframe itself.
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
Just throwing this out there being a non-expert. If there were AEW platform UAVs, doesn't triangulation help in detecting stealth? You can have a net of AEW HALE UAVs constantly in the air quickly covering areas that fixed stations could not. Look at how Japanese radar stations couldn't detect that Y-12.
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That would be a nice capability for the PLAAF/PLAN to have-- a constant AWACS net above whatever operating area they chose, generated by dozens of HALE UAVs.
Yes, but triangulation actually requires that you know where to look. Objects outside the overlapped detection space will go unnoticed. Furthermore, that strategy would depend on a good data link and the right recognition algorithms. It works in theory, but it can get complicated in practice.
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