First flight 2014 | ||
TYHI UAV is a Chinese UAV developed by Changzhou Haijie Metallurgical Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (CZHJ, 常州海杰冶金机械制造有限公司), a wholly owned subsidiary of Tongyu Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. (TYHI, 通裕重工公司).
Unmanned helicopter
Originally a heavy machinery manufacturer, TYHI begun to expand its business into UAV arena, and its subsidiary CZHJ was tasked to develop the first UAV of TYHI. Since CZHJ was a heavy equipment manufacturer of metallurgical industry and did not have any UAV experience, it decided to join force with the 27th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (27th Institute of CETC, 中国电子科技集团第二十七研究所), a major Chinese provider of avionics, including avionics used by UAVs. After the forming the development team in December 2013, it was decided that the UAV would be targeted in the agricultural sector due to the potential growth and relative market certainty. Consequently, it was determined that the best UAVs suited for agricultural applications would be unmanned helicopter. The unmanned helicopter is in conventional helicopter layout and utilizes commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) subystems, which greatly shortened the development cycle. Eight month after the development begun, the unmanned helicopter was ordered by the first customer in August 2014, when CZHJ closed a deal with Changzhou Municipal Yuan-Cheng Special Agricultural Products Farmers’ Specialist Cooperative (常州市源程特色农产品农民专业合作社) for ¥ 180,000 on August 14, 2014.