NUAA UAV

NUAA UAVs are Chinese UAVs developed by Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA), and most of which are experimental UAV, but some of which have entered limited service in China.

Administer Shadow

Administer Shadow (Yu-Ying or Yuying, 御影) is an experimental UAV developed by NUAA, and its primary function is to test detachable wings. Administer Shadow made its public debut at the AVIC Cup UAV Innovation Competition held in Beijing in September 2009. Administer Shadow is in conventional layout with highwing configuration, and tricycle landing gear. Propulsion is provided by a propeller driven tractor engine mounted in the nose. The designer of Administer Shadow is Mr. Yan Xiao-Feng (颜晓峰).

The outer portion of the wing of Administer Shadow is detachable to provide best fits needed for different speed. At lower speed at 9 meter per second, the wingspan is 2.4 meter. When higher speed is needed, the outer portion of the wing are automatically detached with wingspans drop to 1.8 meter, but the speed is doubled to 18 meter per second.^[1]

BZK-001

BZK-001 UAV is a fixed wing UAV developed by NUAA, and it made its public debut on October 1, 2009 during the Military Parade of the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China.^[2] BZK-001 is in conventional layout with high wing configuration and landing gear consists of a pair of skids. There are two more models, BZK-001A and BZK-001B, both developed from the original BZK-001, which is mainly intended as a drone. BZK-001B was the one displayed in the parade, and it was vehicle mounted.^[3]

BZK-002

BZK-002 is the development of BZK-001, and the main difference between BZK-001 and BZK-002 is in landing gear. The landing gear of BZK-002 consists of wheel instead of a pair of skids of BZK-001. However BZK-002 does not take off by taxiing with wheels, but instead, BZK-002 are still launched by catapult, just like how BZK-001 is launched. During the recovery, BZK-002 differs from its predecessor BZK-001 in that BZK-002 is recovered by conventional landing via taxiing.^[4][5]

BZK-003

BZK-003 is a very little known UAV developed by NUAA, and it equips several People's Liberation Army Ground Force ) PLAGF units such as reconnaissance battalions. The existence of BZK-003 is revealed in a research paper on the designs of UAV ground test equipment that is capable of servicing a variety of UAVs with only needing different software and without any hardware changes.^[6]

Cloud Flute

Cloud Flute (Yun-Di or Yundi, 云笛) UAV is a fixed wing Chinese UAV developed by NUAA. Development completed in 1999, and the UAV is the first Chinese UAV to adopt hydraulic catapult for launch and recovery net for recovery. The general designer of Cloud Flute is Professor Lü Qingfeng (吕庆风).^[7][8]

Clouded Leopard

Clouded Leopard (Yun-Bao, Yunbao, 云豹) is a very little known UAV developed by NUAA. The existence of Clouded Leopard is first revealed in 2007, and the UAV utilizes GPS/RA semi-autonomous landing technology, so it can land conventionally via taxiing during recovery instead of using parachute.^[5][7][8][9]

Cloud Swallow

Cloud Swallow (Yun-Yan or Yunyan, 云燕) is a very little known Chinese UAV developed by NUAA. The existence of Cloud Swallow was first revealed in 2012 during the news release on the 60th Anniversary of the founding of NUAA, and Cloud Swallow has entered service already.^[7][8]

Ducted fan miniature UAV

NUAA ducted fan miniature UAV is a very little known hand held miniature UAV that can be hand launched. The UAV is in conventional layout with winglets but without any tailplanes. Propulsion is provided by a ducted fan with inlet under the chin. This UAV is mainly used a test platform for miniature ducted fan engine developed by NUAA.^[10]

FY-E

FY-E UAV is a jet powered UAV developed by NUAA as a high speed reconnaissance UAV, and it made its public debut in the 5th UAV convention held in Beijing in September 2014. FY-E adopts some stealth feature and can also be deployed as target designator for precision guided munitions with semi-active laser terminal guidance. Externally, FY-E visually resembles AGM-86 ALCM, except FY-E adopts V-tail instead. The inlet of FY-E also has a different shape than that of AGM-86.^[11]

Hand held miniature UAV

NUAA hand held miniature UAV is a miniature UAV that can be hand launched. The UAV is in conventional layout with twin tails but without any tailplanes. Externally resembles a miniature jet, the UAV is moved by a propeller driven electrical pusher engine mounted at the empennage.^[12]

Long Arrow

Long Arrow (Chang-Jian or Changjian, 长箭, often abbreviated as CJ) is a fixed wing, jet powered UAV developed by NUAA developed in 2006.^[13] During the development of Long Arrow UAV, computer aided design was widely used. More importantly, most of the computer programs were indigenously developed by NUAA.^[7] The engine inlet of Long Arrow was completely designed via CAD, which reduced cost and time.^[14] The engine inlet is constructed fiber glass plastic that helped reduced radar cross section and thus improved stealth.^[8]

RKL 165

RKL 165 UAV developed by NUAA for People's Liberation Army (PLA) is an UAV specifically designed to generate false targets to jam AEW. RKL 165 program begun in 1997 when it was first proposed by the 4th Directorate of People's Liberation Army General Staff Department (PLAGSD, 总参谋部第四部), and subsequently approved by People's Liberation Army General Armaments Department (PLAGAD) later. RKL 165 is part of the QD550 electronic warfare system (EWS) under Project 995 (995工程). QD550 EWS of Project 995 is an integrated EWS covering large sector, specifically developed to counter E-2T, which consists of four subsystems, RCL 302, RCT 321, RCZ 301 and RKL 165. After more than a year of flight test in three phases totaling 34 test flights, RKL 165 was completed and a total of six were delivered. Four more control units were subsequently ordered, with two in 2004 and two in 2005. Technologies developed for RKL 165 have been successfully adopted by other UAVs developed by NUAA, such as Clounded Leopard UAV, BZK-002 UAV and Long Arrow UAVs.^[5]

Swan Swallow 3

Swan Swallow (Hong-Yan or Hongyan, 鸿燕) # 3 is a very little known Chinese UAV developed by NUAA. The UCAV sometime are erroneously referred as Swan Goose (鸿雁) instead, because in Chinese, swallow and goose are both pronounced the same, as Yan. Furthermore, Swan Goose is more common name because it is a real bird, while Swan Swallow does not exist in the animal world. However, the correct name is Swan Swallow, not Swan Goose. The existence of Cloud Swallow was first revealed in 2012 during the news release on the 60th Anniversary of the founding of NUAA, and Cloud Swallow has entered service already.^[7][8]

See also

List of unmanned aerial vehicles of the People's Republic of China

References