Engineering:BIT UAV

UAVs
Role	Experimental UAVs
National origin	China
Manufacturer	Beijing Institute of Technology
First flight	2009
Introduction	2009
Status	In service
Primary user	China

BIT UAVs are Chinese UAVs developed by Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT). Most of these UAVs are experimental UAVs intended to explore new technologies.

Falcon

Falcon (Lie-Ying or Lieying, 猎鹰) is an experimental UAV developed by BIT, and it is a fixed wing UAV intended to explore technologies of thrust vectoring. Falcon made its public debut at the AVIC Cup UAV Innovation Competition held in Beijing in September 2009, and won innovation award. The complete name is Optimal Angle Thrust Vectoring Experimental Aircraft (Da-Jiao-Du Shi-Liang Tui-Li Ji-Shu Shi-Yan-Ji, 大角度矢量推力技术验证机).

M-5 Phantom

M-5 Phantom (Mei-Ying or Meiying, 魅影) UAV is an UAV in flying wing layout with winglets. M-5 Phantom is designed by a team of BIT students from BIT Zhuhai campus, including Mr. Zheng Teng-Fei (郑腾飞), Ms. Lin Li-Ping (林丽萍), Mr. Li Yung-Yang (李旸洋), Ms. Deng Jie-Yan (邓杰燕), and Ms. Li Yan-Ni (李燕妮). M-5 Phantom is mainly intended to explore technologies that can adopted to high altitude stealth unmanned reconnaissance aircraft (Gao-Kong Yin-Shen Wu-Ren Zhen-Cha-Ji, 高空隐身无人侦察机). However, M-5 Phantom is not intended to really fly at high altitude, but instead, it is used as a research UAV to research radar cross section (RCS) of aerodynamic design: for high altitude and long endurance flight, winglets are good feature to improve fuel efficiency, but this inevitably would affect the RCS of the aircraft and resulting in drop in stealth. M-5 Phantom is a flying wing with winglet and it is intended to study the effects of winglets on RCS of a stealth design. M-5 Phantom made its public debut in 2012 at the 5th Innovation Cup future aircraft design competition, where it won an award.

Miniature UAV

Miniature UAV is an UAV developed by BIT with twin-boom layout and inverted v-tail. Propulsion is provided by a two-blade propeller driven by a pusher engine mounted at the rear end of the fuselage, and the UAV is constructed of carbon fiber and wood. This UAV adopts a hybrid power source that includes both fuel and battery. Fuel provides long range capability while the situation dictates the need for quiet operation, fuel would be shut off and the battery would take over to reduce the noise of the engine in order to avoid acoustical detection by the enemy. The complete name for this UAV is Miniature Catapulted (Launched) Parachute Landing Fuel Electric Hybird Power Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Xiao-Xing Tan-She San-Jiang You-Dian Hun-He Dong-Li Wu-Ren-Ji, 小型弹射伞降油电混合动力无人机) Specification:

• Max take-off weight: 14 kg
• Max payload: 3 kg
• Wingspan: 2.7 m
• Ceiling: 5 kg
• Speed: 70 – 150 km/hr
• Endurance: 2.5 – 4 hr (on fuel), 0.5 hr (on battery)
• Crew: 2
• Deployment time: < 10 m
• Storage container size after recovery: 1.1 m x 0.7 m x 0.4 m
• Recovery: parachute
• Launch: catapult
• Catapult size: 4.8 m deployed, 2.4 m folded.

Gun-Launched UAV

Gun-Launched UAV is an experimental micro air vehicle (MAV) program developed by BIT to explore the potential of gun-launched UAV. The general designers are Chen Jun (陈军), Yang Shuxing (杨树兴), Zhang Guoqing (张国庆), and Mo Li (莫雳) of Schools of Aerospace Engineering (宇航学院) of BIT. The Gun-Launched UAV is electrically powered and is deployed by a 155 mm round, with a max payload of 2.9 kg. and hence the complete name Gun-Launched Electric-Powered UAV (Pao-She Dian-Dong Wu-Ren-Ji, 炮射电动无人机).

Golden Swing

Golden Swing (Liu-Jin Yao-bai or Liujin Yaobai, 流金摇摆) is an experimental UAV developed by BIT to explore VTOL technology. Externally, Golden Swing visually resembles a miniature version of Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk. TheVTOL UAV is powered by half a dozen ducted fans, two of which are ounted atop the fuselage near the root of the wings to provide propulsion in level flight, while the remaining four are installed in the fuselage in two rows to provide lift during take-off and landing.

Foldable UAV

Foldable UAV is a micro air vehicle (MAV) for rapid deployment. The need for a rapidly deployable MAV is rooted in the fact that larger UAV with higher speed often takes longer to be deployed, while MAV can be rapidly deployed, their speed is often slower than that of larger UAVs, and thus takes longer to reach the target area. Furthermore, these MAVs often have shorter range than their bigger cousins so that troops must approach target area within close proximity, thus increasing the exposure to danger. Foldable UAV is an attempt to alleviate this problem by combining rocket launch with MAV, but contrary to rocket assisted take-off where rockets are installed on aircraft to provide extra thrust during take-off, Foldable UAV applies a totally different principle in that the MAV is folded and stored inside a rocket, which is launched into the target area at distance. Up on reaching the target area, the miniature UAV/MAV inside the rocket round would be unfold and deployed, start performing missions right away. Once the mission is accomplished, the MAV would return and landing conventionally via taxiing and recovered. Hence the complete name for this UAV is Based on Rocket Launched Foldable UAV (Ji-Yu Huo-Jian Fa-She de Zhe-Die Wu-Ren-Ji, 基于火箭发射的折叠式无人机).

The advantage of such practice is the rapid deployment of MAV at greater distance in comparison to traditional way of deployment. For example, if its takes a typical electrically powered miniature UAV/MAV more than 150 seconds to reach a designated target area 3 kilometers away, then the time it takes from the moment a rocket is launched to the moment the foldable UAV inside the rocket are fully deployed above the same target and starts working is only less 30 seconds. Foldable UAV is in conventional layout with V-tail and tricycle landing gear. The wing is unique in that it is in diamond-back form. When completely folded, the entire UAV can be stored in a rocket round with diameter of 210 mm. Propulsion is provided by a two-blade propeller driven by a tractor engine mounted in the nose.

See also

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