Engineering:BUAA unmanned helicopter

BUAA unmanned helicopters are Chinese UAVs developed by Beihang University (BUAA), some of which has entered service with Chinese military and governmental establishments.

Falcon Hawk

Falcon Hawk (Sun Ying or Sunying, 隼鹰) is an unmanned helicopter in conventional helicopter layout with a pair of skids as landing gear, and it is designed for various missions such as crop dusting, aerial surveying, phototopography and cinematography. Falcon Hawk made its public debut on November 6, 2004 as it won the first place in the rotoray wing category in “Flying Leopard Cup” (Fei-Bao Bei, or Feibaobei, 飞豹杯) Aerial Robotic Competition. Falcon Hawk differs from later models developed by BUAA that it lacks the aerodynamic fairing later models have. Falcon Hawk is no longer marketed and has since been replaced by more advanced models developed later.

F-120

F-120 is an unmanned helicopter in conventional helicopter layout with a pair of skids as landing gear, and it is designed for various missions such as crop dusting, aerial surveying, phototopography and cinematography. Specification:

• Rotor diameter (m): 3.6
• Height (m): 1.2
• Length (m): 0.8
• Empty weight (kg): 60
• Payload + Fuel (kg): 45
• Endurance (hr): 2
• Range (km): 120
• Max speed (km/hr): 90
• Cruise speed (km/hr): 60
• Ceiling (km): 2.5
• Temperature (°C): -45 to 50
• Power plant: 20 kW gasoline engine

FH-1

FH-1 is an unmanned coaxial helicopter developed by BUAA, and it shares the same airframe with another Chinese unmanned helicopter TTA FH-1, and hence the dimensions and performance of both unmanned helicopters are similar. BUAA FH-1 however, has slightly larger main rotors and is 20% heavier than TTA FH-1, and thus has lower operational ceiling and slower maximum speed, despite its power plant is 50% more powerful than that of TTA FH-1. The maximum wind speed allowed for operation is also lower for BUAA FH-1 in comparison to that of TTA FH-1. The extremely close similarity between the two unmanned helicopters is the result of BUAA selling its design to other Chinese UAV manufacturer to produce, and in some instances, these Chinese UAV manufacturers develops their own design by making modifications of the original BUAA design, such as in the case of TTA. Specification:

• Width: 0.8 m
• Height: 1.3 m
• Empty weight: 50 kg
• Max take-off weight: 90 kg
• Payload + fuel: 40 kg
• Fuel: 10 kg
• Main rotor diameter: 2.6 m
• Power plant: two 15 hp gasoline engines
• Max speed: 100 km/h
• Cruise speed: 60–70 km/h
• Ceiling: 2.5 km
• Endurance: 2 hr with 15 L fuel, 2.6 hr with 20 L fuel, and 3.3 hr with 25 L fuel
• Range @ 60 km/hr: 90 km with 15 L fuel, 150 km with 20 L fuel, and 190 km with 25 L fuel
• Rate of climb: 3 m/s
• Max wind speed allowed for operation: 70 km/h in flight, 36 km/h for take-off and landing

FH-2

FH-2 unmanned helicopter is a small UAV is conventional helicopter layout with a pair of skids as landing gear. FH-2 adopts modular design concept so that different payload can be carried, and for its propulsion system, blades of different sizes can be used for its main rotor. Specification:

• Rotor diameter(m): 2.5 or 3
• Rotor blades: 2
• Max take-off weight (kg): 40 – 60
• Max payload (kg): 20
• Empty weight (kg): 25 – 30
• Width (m): 0.7
• Distance between skids (m): 0.8
• Length (m): 1.7
• Height (m): 1.4
• Max speed (km/hr): 100
• Cruise speed (km/hr): 60 – 70
• Endurance (hr): 1 with 15 kg payload, 2 hr with 10 kg payload
• Ceiling (km): 2.5
• Range (km): 90 – 120
• Max wind speed allowed for take-off and landing (km/hr): 70
• Max wind speed allowed for flight (km/hr): 36
• Temperature allowed for operation (°C): - 40 to 50
• Propulsion: 10 kW two-stroke gasoline motorcycle engine

M-18 Gull I

M-18 Gull (Hai-Ou or Haiou, 海鸥) I is an unmanned coaxail helicopter developed by BUAA, and its maiden flight was successfully completed in January 1996. M-18 Gull I has twin tails and a pair of skids as landing gear, and externally, it resembles another Chinese unmanned coaxial helicopter PAPEI Sky Eye 2. The flight control system is a strap down system developed by NUAA, which is shared by another unmanned coaxial helicopter developed by BUAA, M-22 described below. M-18 is intended for aerial survey, photography and cinematography. Specification:

• Weight (kg): 300
• Power plant: 80 hp gasoline engine

M-22

M-22 is an unmanned coxial helicopter developed by BUAA that externally resemebles a miniature version of the much larger Kamov Ka-137. M-22 utilizes modular design concept so that many of its subsystems are interchangeable, such as different sizes of rotors can be used for the two pairs of rotors. When longer endurance is required, some of payload modules can be removed to make room for more fuel module, while greater payload is needed, fuel tank modules can be removed to make room for larger payload section. The flight control system is a strap down system developed by NUAA, which is shared by earlier M-18. Specification:

• Rotor diameter (m): 2 – 2.5
• Max weight (kg): 50
• Height (m): 1.3
• Length (m): 0.8
• Empty weight (kg): 32 – 34
• Max fuel (kg): 6
• Max payload (kg): 10
• Endurance (hr): 1
• Range (km): 90
• Max speed (km/hr): 90@ 10 kg payload, 123 without payload
• Cruise speed (km/hr): 60 – 70
• Ceiling (km): 2.5 – 3
• Temperature (°C): -45 to 50
• Power plant: Two 4.7 or 6.5 kW two-stroke gasoline motorcycle engine
• Max wind speed allowed for operation: 70 km/h in flight, 36 km/h for take-off and landing

MH-28 Gull II

MH-28 Gull II is the successor of earlier MH-18 and share the identical airframe of another Chinese unmanned helicopter Yotaisc M28 Honey Bee 28, and the performance of the two are extremely similar, only with minor difference. The main difference between the two Chinese unmanned helicopter is in the ground control system which are independently developed by their respective developers. MH-28 ground control station consists of two laptop computers, one for mission planning, and the other for payload control and imaging processing. In comparison to M28, MH-28 is with slightly larger main rotor, and can fly higher, and have longer endurance. Specification:

• Max speed: 130 km/h
• Cruising speed: 100 km/h
• Economy speed: 65 km/h
• Rate of climb: 7.2 m/s
• Endurance: 3 – 5 h
• Ceiling: 3 – 5 km
• Max take-off weight: 380 kg
• Empty weight: 250 kg
• Fuel: 50 kg
• Max payload: 80 kg
• Rotor diameter: 5.1 m
• Fuselage width: 3.6 m
• Height: 2.2 m

Quadrotor

BUAA quadrotor is a quadcopter developed by School of Instrumentation Science and Opto-Electronics Engineering (北航仪器科学与光电工程学院) of BUAA. The general designer is Mr. Hu Jun (胡军), and the UAV is primarily intended for aerial surveillance and photography missions. Flight control system (FCS) is controlled by Atmel ATmega16 microcontrollers, with three gyroscopes, and for fully autonomous flight, GPS and OSD modules are incorporated. This UAV is specifically designed as low-cost unit, and in comparison to most other quadcopters on the market, it only costs 50% to perform the identical task. BUAA can either be remotely piloted or fully autonomous based on customer’s requirement.

See also

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