Chinese Soar Eagle HALE UAV

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

There is also noise they have a VTOL prototype too.

It seems the quality of Chinese military equipment has really improved in the last few decades.

The JF17/FC1 fighter really does look like a modern F5,ie,a cheap but relatively capable modern fighter.

The K8 jet trainer has sold really well to many poorer nations with over 500 sold. AFAIK,after the BAE Hawk,it is the best selling jet trainer in the last 20 years.

[aidanjt]

It ain't small! Its 25m wingspan is considerably larger than the F16 and F15, 10m and 13m respectively.

It's an obvious design choice. Saves a tonne of fuel if you design an aircraft with a really large wing span if all you're interested in is keeping it in the air for nearly a really long period of time.

[aidanjt]

It seems the quality of Chinese military equipment has really improved in the last few decades.

I guess all that contractor/military server cracking and buying up crashed hardware has paid off.

[HalloweenJack]

just like the USA has been buying up Russian hardware for decades - and finding out there defence kit is useless (flares for example)

[chuckskull]

Love that wing design. Must have some serious payload and endurance stats.

China has had a deliberate program of reducing it's military imports and replacing them with home-grown tech for many years now, this is the payoff. That combined with the US's current foreign policy which amounts to "Hey the cold war was great, let's start one with China"(hilariously, paid for by borrowing from China), means these wont be the last we see.

Let's hope it stays cold.

[Million]

Is it propped up on stacks of newspaper?

[Biscuit]

That looks brilliant!

i find it hilarious how similar some of the Chinese designs look to the american ones, just like in the commercial world http://www.oddee.com/item_86044.aspx

Although this UAV certainly is an exception

Wasn't there rumours that designs for some of the American fighters had been stolen by Chinese hackers?

[HalloweenJack]

^^ a bit like the US UCAV that the Iranians brought down with electronic warfare - it was taken over , then flown and landed

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Western companies also license Russian designs or use the expertise of their companies. The M346 is basically an Italian version of the Yak130. Lockheed Martin also used Yakovlev during the F35 program for their expertise in VTOL systems on the YAK141.

[HalloweenJack]

here cat:



might as well have a real image for the YAK-141

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I wanted an image which emphasised the planforms!!

[HalloweenJack]

heya mine has the door for the vertical `fan` jets

[petercook7]

Well India are building one of the best fighter planes in the world https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanc...ombat_Aircraft and are in cooperation with Russia to build the best fighter planes in the world https://www.defenseindustrydaily.com...fighter-03133/.

[Stoo]

And that's related to this Chinese UCAV how?

[OXO]

Interesting... looks like a hybrid of a Global Hawk and a Diamondback Glide bomb kit:

http://www.creativecrash.com/marketp...se-soar-dragon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northro...-4_Global_Hawk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Diameter_Bomb

+ =

Wonder if the aerodynamics work properly - or if it is just a stab in the dark.

[flearider]

if you think how many time the usa has been hacked .. thats what they have been getting .. but there quiet about it .. now if you take all these prototypes and add in the fact there stockpiling rice and fuel .. ..well make your own call