Domestic solar drones are successful!Where is it different from ordinary drones

On September 3rd, the "Qixing 50" large solar drone developed by the Aviation Industry One Flying Institute was successful in Yulin, Shaanxi.

Picture source: Aviation Industry Flying Hospital

"Qi Xing 50" took off at 17:50 on the same day, flying for 26 minutes in the air, and landed smoothly at 18:16. The aircraft is in good condition, the systems are running normally, and the first flight is successful.

What is the purpose of such a large and light aircraft? Why do countries around the world secretly work in this field?

Another solar drone in China is successful

According to media reports, the large solar drone of "Qixing 50" is the first oversized and low -speed drone developed by the aviation industry. Power and energy full -power large -scale drone.

Among them, the biggest advantage of the dual body layout is that it has a large load and a long range, because the double body can bring longer wings. The wingspan (distance between the left and right wings of the wing) is 50 meters, which is similar to ordinary civil aviation aircraft (such as the Boeing 787 is 60.12 meters).

According to the designer, "Qi Xing 50" also uses a modular design, which can quickly remove the stand -alone aircraft into two planes, or add a fuselage module.

It also has a large ratio. The so -called "string ratio", its calculation method is to remove the wing area with the square wingspan. Therefore, the more slender wings, the larger the string ratio, the larger the string ratio, and the longer the flight time.

In theory, they can stay in the air for several months or even years. However, at present, the design goal of "Star 50" is to fly for 7 consecutive days.

According to reports, in order to improve the efficiency of photoelectric conversion and avoid severe disturbance of atmospheric atmosphere, the flying height of the solar drone such as "Star 50" is a flat flow, and the cruise height can reach more than 20,000 meters.

Picture source: Shangguan News

What is the use of this drone?

The aviation industry said that the successful first flight laid a solid foundation for the development of large solar drones and model projects in the aviation industry, and will further promote the development of key technologies such as the field of new energy, the field of composite materials, and the field of flight control. Near the ability to perform tasks in the space and ocean -ocean.

The so -called "near space" refers to the airspace of 20 to 100 kilometers from the ground. For traditional fuel consumption aircraft, the power of the engine will affect the power due to the nearly thin air near the space. However, for the drone that is covered with solar panels with the whole body, the nearby space is a good place for "Dajian skills".

Due to the characteristics of solar drones (long -leaving time and high flight height), they are also called "pseudo -satellites". Flying, performing high -altitude reconnaissance, forest fire monitoring, atmospheric environment monitoring, geographical surveying and mapping, and communication relay.

In particular, communication is considered to be the best landing scenario: it can be used as an air base station to enhance the existing communication services, it can also supplement the blind and remote areas, and to provide emergency response during emergencies, and then the long -range relay communication in the military.

Of course, due to the power provided by solar energy, the flying speed of this "pseudo -satellite" can only reach about 100 km/h (the flight speed of civil aviation aircraft is 800 km/h to 1,000 kilometers/h).

my country is the third country to master the technology

In 2017, the "Rainbow" solar drone of China Aerospace Science and Technology Group Corporation was successful. my country has also become the third country after the United States and Britain to master the technology.

Rainbow solar unmanned wing exhibition is 45 meters, the surface is covered with solar panels, and the shape of "science fiction" is "science fiction"; in the future, one flight can be available for several months or even years, and it has the characteristics of "quasi -satellite"; Real -time surveillance positioning, broad application prospects ...

Picture source: Baidu Encyclopedia

In 2019, the "Mozi II" solar aircraft for nearly two years in Shanghai Lingang has successfully tested the test flight. The person in charge of the project stated that there is no problem with China's solar aircraft hardware. The key is that "software" such as meteorological protection and route planning is still insufficient. After the "Mozi II" completes the follow -up performance test, the aircraft will cooperate with 5G honeycomb equipment vendors and mobile data operators to expand the usage scenario.

At present, in addition to the "Qixing 50" solar drone, there are also a number of solar drones in China are developing and testing.

Airbus solar drone Flying for two consecutive months crashed after two consecutive months

Many western countries have also accelerated the pace of competition in the field of solar drones.

According to Simpleflying, a foreign aviation news website, on August 19, the famous Airbus solar drone Zephyr lost contact over Arizona in the United States. The aircraft has been flying for 64 days. If you persist for another hour, it will break the longest flight record in history.

The drone took off on June 15, 2022 from the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving GROUND. Since then, it has been flying over the test field and KOFA National Wildlife Reserve. And this flight broke its 25 -day and 23 -hour flight record set in August 2018, and reached a series of new milestones, including the longest continuous continuous continuous consecutive consecutive Flight, and the farthest flight from the take -off point. The Airbus Company described the Zephyr drone as "the first type of flat drone", which can fly continuously for several months. The purpose of its design is to charge its airborne battery with solar energy while flying long for a long time, so that it can continue to fly at night. Because of the energy storage system, Airbus claims that this drone's flight is "completely carbon and neutral."

It is reported that although the airbank company has not confirmed it, the machine should crash.

Picture source: Global Network

In addition, according to foreign media reports, the Russian "forward -looking research" fund and the research personnel who automatically controlled the researchers jointly developed drones code -named "Owl", which is responsible for transmitting wireless data to remote areas to remote areas.

According to reports, the "owl" body is mainly made of carbon fiber material, with a weighing 12 kg and a wingspan of 9 meters. The upper surface of the wing is covered with solar panels, and the cabin is equipped with a battery. During the first test flight, the "owl" drone was 9000 meters away from the air and uninterrupted for 50 hours. Its flight airspace was located in high latitudes above 66.5 degrees north latitude.

In addition, Facebook also designed a solar drone "Aquila" in order to implement the global network plan.

In 2017, the aircraft succeeded in the second test flight, flying for 1 hour and 46 minutes.

Picture source: network

The important direction of future drone development

Solar drones use solar light as energy, and store excess energy in the battery during the day. At night, continuously fly through the battery. Compared with aircraft with chemical fuel, solar aircraft does not pollute the atmosphere. It is a real green environmental protection aircraft and an important direction for the development of drones in the future.

According to a survey report from the 2018 survey company's NSR, ultra -high aircraft such as drones and spacecraft flying in the flat flow layer can reach $ 1.7 billion in the next 10 years. In addition, the flat flow drone has conducted many commercialized trials. Compared with other flat aircraft aircraft projects, more capital investment can be raised. NSR analysts said that ultra -high aircraft development projects are very promising.

The flat flow drone "Aquila" developed by Facebook in the United States has successfully tested 2 times. Boeing's subsidiary has also announced that it is promoting a flat -flow drone project called "Odysseus", and there is an Airbus's "Hefeng S". The actual actions of major companies are enough to show that this project is indeed promising.

Experts said that solar drones can theoretically reach unlimited airlines. If you design for 3 months of flight, fly thousands of kilometers a day, you can fly hundreds of thousands of kilometers in three months. Based on this design, its application scenarios will be very extensive. Whether it is observation of local observations, or communication base stations "hanging" in the heavens, communication relay and other functions, it can be realized.

However, if you want solar drones to fly around the world, you need to overcome more technical problems. Therefore, everyone must not only have confidence in the development prospects of this technology, but also be patient with the process of overcoming related technologies.

(China Xiaokang.com Comprehensive Global Network, Shangguan News, Surging News, China Youth Network, etc.)

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