Engineering:Zunde UAV
| ZD series UAV | |
|---|---|
| Role | UAV |
| National origin | China |
| Manufacturer | Tianjin Zun-De Aviation Science and Technology Co., Ltd. (Zunde) |
| Designer | Zunde |
| First flight | 2012 |
| Status | In service |
| Primary user | China |
Zunde UAVs are Chinese UAVs developed by Tianjin Zun-De (Zunde) Aviation Science and Technology Co., Ltd. (Zunde, 天津尊德航空科技公司), originally a developer of autopilots and flight control systems (FCS) for other UAV manufacturers in China, Zunde has expanded its business into UAVs by developing its own UAVs utilizing its own successful autopilots and FCS.
Unlike most other Chinese UAV developers which first begins with micro air vehicles (MAV)s and then expands into larger UAVs, the strategy of Zunde is ambitious in that it directly begins with medium-sized UAVs of 100 to 500 kg class. As end of 2013, three different models are developed, ZD-100, ZD-250 and ZD-400, and all of these models are in low-rate production, and the company has received governmental funding from municipal government of Tianjin to expand production, as part of local governmental effort to boost high-tech industry in local economy.[1] All of them are classified and named after their respective maximum take-off weight, thus ZD-100 has maximum take-off weight of 100 kg, ZD-250 has maximum take-off weight of 250 kg, and ZD-400 has maximum take-off weight of 400 kg. These UAVs are intended for aerial cinematography, photography, survey and agricultural missions.[2] The general designer of Zunde series UAVs is the same general designer of autopilots the company produced earlier, Mr. Qi Xu-Guang (齐旭光).[3]
However, due to the technical challenges faced in the development of much more complex larger UAVs, the progress is slow in comparison to the development of much smaller UAV of simpler design. As a result, the smaller UAVs developed by Zunde have been completed first, and entered service before any of the planned larger UAVs. A total of three smaller UAVs developed by Zunde have been marketed, and the first one is the unmanned helicopter. This unmanned helicopter is in conventional layout, with commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) subsystems such as airframe. Landing gear consists of a pair of skids and payload is installed in the nose. This unmanned helicopter is mainly intended for aerial photography / cinematography / survey / surveillance missions.[4] In addition to unmanned helicopter, Zunde has also successfully developed and marketed two multirotors, a hexacopter and an octocopter. One of the common feature shared by both is that the landing gear consists of a pair of skids, which can be folded to provide unobstructed view of the onboard photography equipment.[4]
See also
List of unmanned aerial vehicles of the People's Republic of China
References
- ↑ Zunde UAV
- ↑ ZD-100/250/400
- ↑ General designer of Zunde UAV
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Rotary wing UAVs". Archived from the original on 19 August 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140819103119/http://www.airdesign-zd.com/?fproducts. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
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