AVIC VSTOL UAVs

Blue Whale

Blue Whale (Lan-Jing or Lanjing, 蓝鲸) is a projected Chinese quad tilt-rotor proposed by China Helicopter Research and Development Institute (CHRDI, 中航工业直升机设计研究所) of AVIC. The eventual goal is to have an VTOL aircraft with takeoff weight of 60 tons, and payload of 20 to 30 tons, speed of 538 km/hr, range of 3106 km, ceiling of 8615 m, and combat radius around 815 km. It is designed to be fly-by-light, constructed mostly by composite material, and has distributed avionics. However, when Blue Whale first made its public debut at the 2nd Helicopter China Expo held in Tianjin in September 2013, where Blue Whale was shown in the form of a model, the developer has revealed that the project would be a proof of concept program which is still at its preliminary proposal stage, and since China had never ventured into the tilt rotor arena and the arena of developing large helicopter of this scale (equivalent of Mil Mi-26 class), the project might progress at a much more prudent approach by first developing an unmanned version at much smaller scale than the ultimate manned version, and once all technologies proved to be mature and fully acceptable, the manned version would be developed based on the experienced gained from the unmanned version in the second step. The naming convention of this aircraft appears to support such claim in that instead of assigned a Z designation for helicopter or Y for transport in traditional Chinese aircraft designation system/practice, the aircraft received a name like most Chinese UAVs, and Z and Y designation are not used. Externally, Blue Whale quad tilt-rotor is almost identical to Curtiss-Wright X-19 except it is round five times larger (for the ultimate manned version). Other difference includes the retractable landing gears where Blue Whale the single wheel landing gear of X-19 is replaced by twin-wheel landing gears in Blue Whale, and there are four blades for each rotor of Blue Whale, as opposed to three for that of X-19.

Flying Swan Goose

Flying Swan Goose (Fei-Hong or Feihong, 飞鸿) is a fixed wing VTOL aircraft developed by http://www.chrdi.com/ China Helicopter Research and Development Institute (CHRDI, 中航工业直升机设计研究所)] of AVIC, and made its first public debut in September 2013 when its scaled-down model was displayed at the 2nd Helicopter China Expo held in Tianjin. Flying Swan Goose is in conventional layout with Pelikan tail but without tailplane. The aircraft has a tricycle landing gear and two engines, one mainly for vertical takeoff, and another for level flight. The lift engine is a four-blade ducted fan in the midsection of the fuselage, while the two-blade propeller driven by a pusher engine is mounted at the empennage at the root of the V-tail. Flying Swan Goose is designed to explore V/STOL technologies.

JC-1

JC-1 UAV is an UAV developed by Qingan Group Co., Ltd. (庆安集团有限公司), a wholly owned subsidiary of AVIC. JC is an abbreviation for Jia Cong (珈蟌), with Jia is headdress jewlry used by Chinese women in ancient China, and Cong is the ancient Chinese name for dragonfly. JC-1 UAV is an unmanned helicopter in coaxial and twin tail layout, with a pair of landing gear consists of skids. One of the feature of JC-1 is that the linkage and swashplate of the coaxial rotor is covered by a cylindrical shell.

K800

K800 UAV is a compound helicopter developed by CHRDI of AVIC. K800 is basically a coaxial helicopter with retractable landing gear, and a propeller driven by a tractor engine mounted in the nose. As with Unique Shadow 8, another coaxial helicopter developed by CHRDI, K800 is also developed as a proof of concept aircraft to gain experience / technology for high speed helicopters. However, K800 has an additional task, which is more important in that it is also a primarily test aircraft of Advancing Blade Concept (ABC) first developed, tested and demonstrated by Sikorsky S-69. ABC is an alternative to traditional coaxial rotors and this concept will be tested on K800 as China to develop ABC of its own. Specification:

Pioneer 01 (Avant-Courier)

Pioneer (Xian-Qu or Xianqu, 先驱) 01 (also known as Avant-Courier) is a Chinese experimental VTOL UAV based on a coaxial rotors design with an inverted v-tail. At level flight, the main propulsion comes from a pair of 6-blade turboprop engines attached to the end of the stub-wing blew the main rotors. The ultimate goal for Pioneer 01 is to reach a maximum speed in excess of 300 km/h, and even up to 600 km/h.

Platypus

Platypus (Ya-zui-shou or Yazuishou, 鸭嘴兽) is a Chinese experimental VTOL UAV with retractable main rotor. At level flight, the main propulsion is provided by a pair of turbojet engines attached to the wing, while the main rotor would retract back into the disk to reduce drag.

Short-Tailed Falcon (Bateleur)

Short-tailed Falcon (Duan-wei-sun or Duanweisun, 短尾隼) is a Chinese experimental VTOL UAV that has very similar layout like that of Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey, and it is also known as Bateleur. What differs the Chinese design from the American configuration is that the main rotor engines are fixed in an upward position in Short-Tailed Falcon, thus they are mainly used for lift during takeoff and landing. At level flight, a pair of 8-blade turboprop pusher engines attached at the wingtip directly below the main rotors provides the main thrust. The final configuration of Short-Tailed Falcon are subject to change because different turboprop engines might be adopted, since China currently is not known to have fully matured turboprop pusher engine available, thus a conventional tractor configuration are more likely to be adopted.

Unique Shadow 8

Unique Shadow 8 (Jue-Ying 8 or Jueying 8, 绝影 8) is another compound helicopter developed by CHRDI of AVIC. Like K800 UAV developed by the same institute, Unique Shadow 8 is also basically a coaxial helicopter with twin tails and retractable landing gear, with a 6-blade contra-rotating propeller mounted in the nose. The existence of Unique Shadow 8 was revealed to the general public in 2013 when a scaled model of Unique Shadow were displayed both at the 15th Beijing Airshow and 2nd Helicopter China Expo in Tianjin, where the it was revealed that the primary purpose to develop Unique Shadow 8 is to explore and gain experience / technology for high speed helicopters with conventional coaxial rotors.

Whirlwind Scout

Whirlwind Scout (Xuan-Feng Zhen-Cha-Bing, Xuanfeng Zhenchabing or Xuanfengzhenchabing, 旋风侦察兵) is one of two Chinese UAVs that resemble Honeywell RQ-16 T-Hawk (the other being FYAT Ducted Fan UAV), and can performs the identical function of RQ-16. The current application for Whirlwind Scout is surveillance, and due to its low noise level during operation (60 dB), the developer has claimed that its presence could not be detected until it's 125 meters from the target. The combination of GPS and inertial navigation system provides high accuracy of target location, and the error is only ± 4 centimeters., Specification:

YY-1 Swift

YY-1 Swift (Yu Yan or Yuyan, 雨燕) VTOL micro air vehicle is developed by Qingan Group Co., Ltd. (庆安集团有限公司), a wholly owned subsidiary of AVIC. YY-1 Swift has a conventional layout with an auxiliary lift propeller engine at the base of its V-tail, and two propellers installed on the outer half of NACA 4415 wing, and this portion of the wing will be tilted during takeoff and landing. Specifications: