China's Unveils New Global Hawk Class UAV

Shmertspionem · Wed Jan 19, 2011 5:32 am

China has unveiled it's first long range UAV - Xiang Long (flying dragon). Given how late China entered this market it has now produced the 2nd longest ranged UAV (7000kms as opposed to the global hawks 22,000 and Heron TP's 3,300kms) on the market - with 1 addendum - it has UCAV like AG weapons capability. It carries a slightly reduced payload than the Global Hawk with a significant reduction in MTOW with 1/3rd its range.

The UAV

Xiang Long vs Global Hawk comparison - Xiang Long on left - Global Hawk on right

The Satcomms system and forward radar integrated into the fuselage

The SY-80 fire control radar

The Engine

The UCAV weapons station

The remote control station

for comparison the Global Hawks remote control station

HaveBlue · Wed Jan 19, 2011 5:42 am

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...

dl767captain · Wed Jan 19, 2011 7:12 am

hmmm i wonder where they got the design idea for that one.... probably the same place they got the idea for their new stealth fighter....

hka098 · Wed Jan 19, 2011 2:55 pm

That looks familiar... I guess if the design works for us, it should work for them.

dimik747 · Thu Jan 20, 2011 7:22 pm

has it ever occurred to anyone that aircraft designed for similar missions may look the same without actually being copied from one another? just because two aircraft look the same doesn't necessarily mean they were copied from each other

Shmertspionem · Fri Jan 21, 2011 5:23 am

Quoting dimik747 (Reply 4):
has it ever occurred to anyone that aircraft designed for similar missions may look the same without actually being copied from one another?

yes but copying certainly isn't derogatory in any way - far from it i say its a smart choice ............. why re-invent the wheel? why make your own mistakes when you can learn from the mistakes of others?

In china's case - it is a notorious copier ..... so even if this plane followed an independent development path ..... assuming that its copied is in many ways quite justified - especially how short a span it was developed in and china's previous non-existence on the UAV scene.

redflyer · Fri Jan 21, 2011 9:57 pm

Quoting dimik747 (Reply 4):
has it ever occurred to anyone that aircraft designed for similar missions may look the same without actually being copied from one another? just because two aircraft look the same doesn't necessarily mean they were copied from each other

With a few exceptions, most Soviet aircraft (and currently Russian ones) that were designed for the same type of missions did not resemble U.S. made aircraft, or vice versa. And those few exceptions probably had an element or two of ill-gotten gains involved with them.

The Chinese are notorious for knocking off other countries' products, so why should this be any different? I'm more ticked off that the information on these products, which have consumed huge amounts of resources in the U.S. in the form of tax dollars, have been acquired with relative ease and for free by others.

Of course, the Chinese are doing themselves no favors because by continuously relying on others for the development capabilities, they ensure they will never be innovators and only copiers, which, in-turn, means someone will always have a leg up on them.

GolfOscarDelta · Sat Jan 22, 2011 4:19 am

Quoting redflyer (Reply 6):
they ensure they will never be innovators and only copiers, which, in-turn, means someone will always have a leg up on them

Not really. Copying is only a way of "getting up to speed". 20 years ago the Chinese economy was nowhere near capable of even affording to develop these things. Now that they are able to afford them they need a way to catch up to the west without actually putting in 50 years of development time. Copying is the only way to go.

As for them being only copiers and not innovators well take a look at the new high speed rail program IIRC the chinese are the ones putting in cost effective and technologically superior bids for the High speed rail in california. From what I remember 10 years back the Chinese were incapable of anything remotely close to high speed rail. They essentially copied the Siemens systems which were installed in China and then innovated to make a better system once they had gotten upto speed. I saw recently a documentary which showed how the Chinese had innovated the wheel systems on high speed rails to make them faster than the ones currently available on the TGV or the KTX and this gave them the edge for the California contract.

They'll only be Xerox Copier Machines for a while, once they have gotten upto speed and have nothing else to copy Innovation is the only way to go. And in a country that has a 1.3 billion people I don't think that will be hard to find.

ebj1248650 · Sat Jan 22, 2011 12:46 pm

What's their next move? A new stealth bomber perhaps? Would that surprise anyone?

Eagleboy · Tue Jan 25, 2011 4:33 am

Quoting redflyer (Reply 6):
With a few exceptions, most Soviet aircraft (and currently Russian ones) that were designed for the same type of missions did not resemble U.S. made aircraft, or vice versa. And those few exceptions probably had an element or two of ill-gotten gains involved with them.

Quoting HaveBlue (Reply 1):
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...

I agree that similar designng parameters may produce similar designs. But I think in this case we can justifiably assume the Chinese looked at the Global Haek and decide to copy it. Fair play. As pointed out it lets them get a 10-10 year leap on what works on UCAVs.

Faro · Sun Jan 30, 2011 10:28 pm

I am simply *amazed* by the speed with which China is developing and testing state of the art weapon systems. This does not bode well for the US's lead in military technology.

If China is due to surpass the US in terms of GDP sometime in the 2020's, it will also be catching up mightily on the military front. Quantity they already have; IMO 10-15 years later with significant qualitative improvements, they could easily -very easily- become the greatest military power on earth.

Faro

China's Unveils New Global Hawk Class UAV

China's Unveils New Global Hawk Class UAV

RE: China's Unveils New Global Hawk Class UAV

RE: China's Unveils New Global Hawk Class UAV

RE: China's Unveils New Global Hawk Class UAV

RE: China's Unveils New Global Hawk Class UAV

RE: China's Unveils New Global Hawk Class UAV

RE: China's Unveils New Global Hawk Class UAV

RE: China's Unveils New Global Hawk Class UAV

RE: China's Unveils New Global Hawk Class UAV

RE: China's Unveils New Global Hawk Class UAV

RE: China's Unveils New Global Hawk Class UAV

Who is online

Popular Searches On Airliners.net