Chinese UCAV/UAV/CCA - news & technology

I must admit I am suprised (but not really) that China has moved forward with this technology as soon as they have. I think they did the math and realized that productivity over their distance is a valid reason to do this. Suspect the unmanned demonstrator is to do the dangerous stuff with a new vehicle type. Would not be surprised to see it transition to a more FLRAA'eque platform in the coming years.

Another article: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...d-fly-at-340-mph/ar-AA1shmKF?ocid=socialshare

Addendum: I am not one to cast doubt, but a closer look at the bulkhead adjacent to the rotating pylon seems shockingly bare of bits and bobs and hydraulics that usually festone the area around the engine and proprotor pylons. Perhaps they have come up with a novel way to retain those behind the firewall. If so, good on them. But it does raise an eyebrow for me.
 
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Until I see that W5000 fly [in the configuration pictured above], I rather think that's a mock-up lashed together with bits and bobs... For what purpose? Raising investment???
Equally, I've seen worse from the some of the bad end (is there a good end? ;) ) of E-VTOL sector.
 
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The Chinese have been cooking up some pretty interesting drones for the past decade or so perhaps we should have a thread dedicated to them.

Pictures in order:
1&2 pictures: Cloud Shadow-5000T Stealth target drone
3: WZ-8 high altitude high speed recon drone
4: WZ-7 high altitude long endurance recon drone
5: GJ-11 UCAV
Attached: CH-7
 

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You're welcome, the right side lists the design manufacturers, exhibition time, and some parameters
 
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New CCA? Was seen flying next to a unidentified Y-9 variant(Control testbed maybe?), formation was tailed by another Y-9. Someone measured it's wingspan relative to the accompanying Y-9 and got 11-12m which is very large for a potential CCA. It also does not match anything that was seen on trailers for 9.3.
 
Tomboy said:
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New CCA? Was seen flying next to a unidentified Y-9 variant(Control testbed maybe?), formation was tailed by another Y-9. Someone measured it's wingspan relative to the accompanying Y-9 and got 11-12m which is very large for a potential CCA. It also does not match anything that was seen on trailers for 9.3.
Click to expand...
It's not obvious that they don't match the ones we see on the trailers, both images of the trailer and the images of this aircraft in the air are extremely poor in quality, and the estimated size could be off as well.
 
Nx4eu said:
It's not obvious that they don't match the ones we see on the trailers, both images of the trailer and the images of this aircraft in the air are extremely poor in quality, and the estimated size could be off as well.
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Could this be it? It does match the general shape of that drone
 
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Another tailless aircraft spotted somewhere in China, probably is some kind of CCA/loyal wingman but could also be a third new fighter in the works. Appears to have a modified tailless lambda cranked arrow similar to the J-XDS and twin engines, current pictures are not clear enough to distinguish whether this aircraft is manned or not, it might be related to the earlier pictures of a similar looking aircraft flying in formation with a special mission Y-9.

Another note is that this aircraft looks suspiciously similar to this patent by Northwestern Polytechnical University describing a variable sweep wing design for a carrier-based fighter. So, the chance of this being a manned demonstrator/prototype is non-zero. IMG_8199.png IMG_8200.png 1754287651181.png
 

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