NUAA Flying Wing UAV

Autumn Leaf Ambassador (Qiu-Ye Shi-Zhe or Qiuyeshizhe, 秋叶使者) is a fixed UAV in flying wing layout without any vertical stabilizer, but it does have winglets. Propulsion is provided by a two-blade propeller driven tractor engine mounted in the nose. The general designers of Autumn Leaf Ambassador are two students of NUAA, Mr. Liu Shu-Ting (刘舒霆) and Mr. Han Jie-Xing (韩杰星). What’s unique about Autumn Leaf Ambassador UAV system is that it incorporates a paragliding wing, which also doubles as drogue parachute, which would enable it to reduce the speed of the UAV from more than 100 km/hour to 15 km/hour within a few seconds.

One of the potential future application of the design is to deploy Autumn Leaf Ambassador as a suicide attack UAV, because it can reach the target area with relatively high speed without any complex mechanism. After reaching the general area where the potential targets are located, the paragliding wing is deployed and the UAV can search for targets at low speed at high altitude for a prolonged period of time. Once a target is identified, the paragliding wing is discarded and the UAV would dive at the target at high speed.[1]

Dream Morpher is an UAV in flying wing configuration, but retained tailplanes, which is in V-tail configuration. Propulsion is provided by a wooden two-blade propeller driven tractor engine mounted in the nose. What’s unique about Dream Morpher is that this UAV is designed to explore the technologies of combined variable-sweep wing and flying wing designs, and the outer portion of the wing can sweep at different angles.[2] The UAV has tricycle landing gear, and it made its public debut in 2011 AVIC Industrial Cup competition of UAV designs held in Beijing.[3]

Kingfisher (Cui-Niao or Cuiniao, 翠鸟) is a series micro air vehicle (MAV) in flying wing layout. Developed by NUAA, Kingfisher MAVs are mainly intended as research vehicles to explore the possibility of adopting flying wing layout on MAVs. The very first model of Kingfisher was developed in 1999 after more than thirty times of redesign, but its presence did not became widely known until a dozen years later in 2011. Kingfisher was developed by a team led by Mr. Yang Zhen-Qiu (杨振球). Since then, several models Kingfisher series have been developed, and most of the early models are remotely controlled only and lacks fully autonomous flight capability. Specification for Kingfisher-01:[4]

• Wingspan (m): 0.45
• Weight (kg): 0.35
• Endurance (min): 20
• Speed (m/h): 80
• Remote control radius (km): 1

Kingfisher-07 MAV in flying wing layout is one of the models of Kingfisher series MAV, and it is based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technologies. It’s the first member of Kingfisher series MAV that can be fully autonomous in flight without any remote control, and in addition, it can also perform real-time image/data transmission. For these reasons, it is often listed separately from earlier Kingfisher series, because its characteristics became standard for later models developed after it. As with all Kingfisher series MAVs, Kingfisher is not a fully flying wing in that it still has a vertical stabilizer despite the omission of the tailplanes. Kingfisher is in the shape of cropped delta wing with winglets, which is pointing downward. Propulsion is provided by a two-blade propeller driven electric motor mounted in the nose.[5]

Nanhang (南航, the Chinese abbreviation of NUAA) is an UAV in flying wing configuration, but retained tailplanes, which is in V-tail configuration. Propulsion is provided by a ducted fan atop of the fuselage, and it has retractable landing gear. Designed by a team of six NUAA students, including Luo Dong-Chao (雒东超), Pan Li-Jun (潘立军) and Wang Zheng-Yun (王钲云). In comparison to some other rudimentary Chinese flying wing designs in similar layout where the engine nacelle is exposed atop the fuselage, thus reduce the stealth, the engine nacelle Nanhang is smoothly integrated into the fuselage thus improved stealth, as in the case of NUAA flying wing describe earlier.[6] Another research task assigned to Nanhang is the explore the utilization of composite material on the UAV, and according to the design team, finding the supplier of the right material took more than three weeks. Design of Nanhang begun in January 2012 and maiden flight was completed on May 28, 2012, which was a completed success in the very first try. A further developmental version has already been planned, which would be ten times larger than Nanhang.[7] Specification:[8]

• Wingspan (m): 1.8
• Weight (kg): 3.5
• Speed (m/s): 10

Purple Lighting (Zi-Dian or Zidian, 紫电) is a UAV in flying wing layout with winglets, and it has fixed tricycle landing gear. Purple Lighting is designed by a team of graduate students of NUAA led by Professor Mr. Shi Zhi-Wei (史志伟). Development of Purple Lighting first begun in 2008, and it took six years to complete, after scrapping nine prototypes within the first nine months of development, a time to apply theories to build an actual aircraft. Purple Lighting is unique in that its utilizes plasma for flight control, the first of its kind in China. Plasma exciters are installed on wings, and when these high-voltage exciters are turned on, plasma stream is generated, producing lift that can be used to control the UAV. For example, when plasma exciters on the right wing are turned on and thus generating greater lift, the UAV would tilt toward left.[9] The color of the plasma stream generated in purple, hence the name purple lighting, because the plasma stream resembles purple colored lighting in the dark. Another benefit of utilizing plasma control is that the plasma generated absorbs radar wave, helping to improve stealth.[10]

Skylark-01 (Yun-Que or Yunque, 云雀) MAV is the development of earlier Kingfisher series MAV. Originally developed as a remote controlled UAV by NUAA, Skylark-01 is also based on MEMS technology and capable of real-time imagery / data transmission. Skylark-01 is a low Reynolds number MAV and eventually developed into a MAV that is fully capable of autonomous flight. Skylark-01 differs from earlier Kingfisher series MAV in that the flying wing technologies utilized on Skylark-01 is more matured, so the vertical stabilizer on Kingfisher series MAV is not present on Skylark-01, so that latter is more closer to a true flying wing layout. However, winglets are still present on Skylark-01 and they point downward, just as in Kingfisher. The most significant visual difference between Skylark-01 and earlier Kingfisher series MAV, however, is that instead of the cropped delta wing of earlier Kingfisher series MAV, the flying wing of Skylark is semicircle shaped. Propulsion of Skylark-01 is provided by a two-blade propeller driven electric motor mounted in the nose.[11] Specification:[12]

• Length (m): 0.15
• Normal operating altitude (m): 200
• Speed (km/h): 40 – 50

NUAA unmanned flying wing is an UAV in flying wing configuration, and it made its public debut in 2011 AVIC Industrial Cup competition of UAV designs held in Beijing. NUAA flying wing looks very similar to another completely unrelated Chinese unmanned flying wing, AVIC 601-S Wind Blade because both are intended to explore technologies of flying wing, and both are transitional designs in that in comparison to more primitive designs that still retain tailplanes, these design have tailplanes eliminated. However, these designs are not advanced enough to completely eliminate vertical control surfaces, so they utilize winglets to assist flight control. Propulsion of NUAA flying wing is housed in a nacelle atop of the fuselage and the nacelle is integrated smoothly into the fuselage.[13]

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