NWPU UAV

Type B-1 Drone is the first drone indigenously developed in China, it is also the first UAV indigenously developed in China. Also known as Type 01 drone, it was also the very first drone and very first UAV developed by NWPU. Being the very first drone developed in China, it was soon superseded by its upgrade, Improved Type B-1. Development of Type B-1 (Type 01) drone was completed in 1962 and it entered service with Chinese military in the same year.[1]

Improved Type B-1 drone (Gai 1, 改一) also known as Improved Type 01 drone, is the upgrade of earlier Type B-1 (Type 01) drone. Like its predecessor, Improved Type B-1 (Improved Type 01) drone is also in the same conventional layout with high wing configuration and a pair of skids as landing gear. The drone is petro powered and propulsion is provided by a two-blade wooden propeller driven tractor engine mounted in the nose.[2][3]

Aerial droid UAV is an UAV developed by NWPU, and it is an experimental UAV developed to develop technologies that can be used to control UAVs via smartphone. Although Aerial droid is capable of theoretically performing various missions such as aerial surveillance, photography, cinematography, and aerial survey, the only application developed so far is for aerial survey. Users can use smartphone to remotely operate UAV and access data gathered by UAV in real time and display it on cell phone.[4]

BJ6903 is low cost drone developed by NWPU with BJ is an abbreviation of Ba-Ji (靶机), meaning drone in Chinese. BJ69003 seems to be a cheaper derivative of earlier Type B-1 (Type 01) drone, and share the same conventional layout with high wing configuration and a pair of skids as landing gear, but the skin is cotton paper instead. Propulsion is provided by a two-blade wooden propeller driven 40 cc, twin cylinder and two stroke tractor engine mounted in the nose at 2 – 3 horsepower. Like its predecessor, BJ6903 is also remotely piloted.[5]

MFW UAV is an experimental UAV developed by NWPU to explore technology of flying wing design. The layout of MFW resembles a miniature version of B-2 Spirit, except the UAV is powered by a two-blade propeller driven pusher engine instead of jet engines. MFW has tricycle landing gear and the engine is mounted at the rearend of the fuselage. Software for MFW ground control station is written in Visual Basic and data processing is performed by PC/104 module produced by RTD Embedded Technologies, Inc. Another task MFW UAV is designed to test out is the newly developed navigational system on board, which is an integrated Gyscope Free Micro Inertial Measurement Unit (GFMIMU) integrated with GPS and magnetic compass. The flight control system of MFW controls a total of ten control surfaces to maneuver the UAV. The complete name of MFW is Intelligent Autonomously Controlled Flying Wing Configuration UAV Proof of Concept System (Zhi-Neng Zi-Zhu Kong-Zhi Fei-Yi Bu-Ju Wu-Ren-Ji Yan-Zheng Xi-Tong, 智能自主控制飞翼布局无人机验证系统).[6]

UAV with folding forward-swept wing is an experimental UAV jointly developed by NWPU and AVIC First Aircraft Institute (中航一飞院), which was first revealed in 2011 Challenger Cup held in Beijing. As its name implies, the primary goal of this UAV is to explore technologies of forward-swept wing and its potential application on UAVs. In addition, the UAV is also intended to test another design at the same time, which is the folding wing, hence, this UAV has two unique characteristics, one of which is that is can be partially folded, and the other is the adaptation of forward-swept wing. The complete name of this UAV is Multiple Axis Folding Forward-Swept Wing Shape-Changing Aircraft (Duo-Zhou Zhe-Die Qian-Lue-Yi Bian-Ti Fei-Ji, 多轴折叠前掠翼变体飞机),[7] because the shape of the UAV changes as its wing folds and unfolds.

UAV with inflatable wing (充气机翼) is an experimental UAV developed by NWPU to explore applicable technology of inflatable wing. The concept is similar to Goodyear Inflatoplane, but on much smaller scale, in that the testbed is only an UAV, as opposed to manned aircraft asin the case of Goodyear Inflatoplane. Furthermore, only the wing is inflatable as opposed to the entire airplane as in the case of Goodyear Inflatoplane. The UAV is in conventional layout with high wing configuration and tricycle landing gear. Propulsion is provided by a two-blade wooden propeller driven tractor engine mounted in the nose.[8]

Willpower is an UAV developed by students of NWPU intended for various missions. The UAV is in twin boom layout with mid-wing configuration and tricycle landing gear. Propulsion is provided by a propeller driven pusher engine mounted at the rearend of the fuselage.[9]

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