First flight February 2006 | ||
Sky Eye (Tian-Yan or Tianyan, 天眼) 2 is a Chinese UAV developed by People’s Armed Police Engineering Institute (PAPEI, 武警工程学院), and subsequently entered service with People's Armed Police.
Sky Eye 2 is one of the few designs among unmanned helicopters adopting coaxial configuration and the unmanned helicopter is in twin tail layout and a pair of skids as landing gear. Sky Eye 2 is completely indigenously developed by PAPEI, including subsystems such as integrated satellite navigational positioning system, which was one of the biggest challenges in the development of Sky Eye 2, and the success led to the capability of dropping both lethal and nonlethal munitions such as small-caliber bombs and tear gas rounds. Other indigenously developed subsystems include flight control systems, imaging and data processing and real-time transmission systems and software, which are essential to airborne surveillance missions, the main tasks Sky Eye 2 is designed to perform.