Indian accounts coping in advance.
Its looks like a good counter at first glance against decentralized and shoot and scoot S-400 features.
Chinese UCAV/CCA/flying wing drones (ISR, A2A, A2G)
- Thread starter VESSEL
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Its looks like a good counter at first glance against decentralized and shoot and scoot S-400 features.
Seems like CH-7 made some RCS tradeoffs in the design. Thought they could do a better job with the ventral antenna design.
From CCTV Weibo account. Cruising speed is mach0.5, 27.3m long wing and 8t MTOW and operating ceiling of 16000m.作为彩虹家族成员之一，彩虹-7无人机到底有啥特点？
彩虹-7外形科幻，和彩虹家族其他成员截然不同。它采用了独特的飞翼布局，翼身高度融合，从翼尖到机身后端分别安装有副翼、襟翼和锯齿形水平尾翼。这种尾翼被形象地称为“海狸尾”，它可以帮助飞机在低空飞行时抵消垂直阵风引起的颠簸，还可以缩短飞机起飞前的滑跑距离。![[话筒]](https://face.t.sinajs.cn/t4/appstyle/expression/ext/normal/48/2018new_huatong_org.png "[话筒]")
彩虹-7的发动机进气口位于机身上方，发动机尾喷管则采用半隐藏式设计。飞机外形光滑优美，整体设计简洁明快。再加上机体表面的隐身涂料，所有检修口盖、起落架舱盖和弹舱都进行了隐身处理，这些都让彩虹-7无人机具备了极好的低可探测性能。
彩虹-7无人机翼展27.3米，最大起飞重量8吨，巡航速度0.5马赫，实用升限约为16000米，飞行性能十分强大。
having optimized stealth from rear would give it better survivability when operating in the frontline, I would imagine.
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The aircraft spotted in November was indeed the CH-7. Take a close look at this image—you can still see traces at the positions where the vertical stabilizers were mounted. In other words, they temporarily installed vertical stabilizers in November for its actual maiden flight. The flight in December, however, was its first flight in a pure flying-wing configuration after removing the stabilizers.
(I forgot the exact timestamp)
Shilao and Ayi said the weird flying wing thing with tails was indeed the CH-7 and it was a "test flight" to guarantee success of the "actual first flight", the one we’re seeing now. It also happened earlier in the year and it's just that the news is released now.
They also said that the aircraft being from CASC has positive implications for China’s MIC, whether in terms of technology diffusion, brand value (the CH family has been somewhat low-end), or broader intra SOE competition and efficiency.
The second point is probably more important than any actual practical implications of the plane.
Shilao and Ayi said the weird flying wing thing with tails was indeed the CH-7 and it was a "test flight" to guarantee success of the "actual first flight", the one we’re seeing now. It also happened earlier in the year and it's just that the news is released now.
They also said that the aircraft being from CASC has positive implications for China’s MIC, whether in terms of technology diffusion, brand value (the CH family has been somewhat low-end), or broader intra SOE competition and efficiency.
The second point is probably more important than any actual practical implications of the plane.
The variety of LO/VLO UAVs, UCAVs, CCAs that are intended for domestic and export customers is indeed somewhat mindful boggling and arguably world leading in terms of actively flying/known to be flying articles.
It's fair to say the PRC UAV industry now is genuinely world leading, or at worst, first among equals with the US (depending on how one wants to measure things)