New Chinese Drone?

Anyone know if this is a new Chinese drone that has been spotted? seems to be a copy or very similar to the reaper?

www.zerohedge.com... ry-drone


Link fails for some reason?

www.zerohedge.com...

reply to post by solidshot


Your link didn't go to the UAV, but here are two that have been unveiled recently. One was unveiled in 2010, and looks like a small scale Global Hawk, called the WJ-600. The other is the one I think you're talking about, called the Pterodactyl.

www.flightglobal.com...

The Pterodactyl has a similar payload to the MQ-1 Predator, is slightly faster, but has a lower max altitude, and only half the endurance as a Predator.

reply to post by Zaphod58



For some reason the first link failed, the second underneath does go to the page i think?

Hmm,has some spy given them the same plans I wonder?
Who could that be?
Has anyone done anything similar in the past-if so maybe its the same people..

reply to post by Silcone Synapse


Why would the Chinese need a spy? they have already reputedly hacked and gained access to the data on most government site and those belonging to military and tech companies iirc?

reply to post by solidshot


It's the same UAV. The Chinese call it the Yi long, the western name is the Pterodactyl. It's not quite a Predator, but it's very close to a Predator.

reply to post by solidshot


Very odd you should post this as I was looking at this yesterday

Predator drone to debut at air show

But is this a US one? (I don't know the markings)

reply to post by PuterMan


That's the Pterodactyl, the Chinese UAV in question.

The Chinese have a way of meticulously copying western aircraft design (at least superficially) and then publishing snapshots of their "new" aircraft, a la the F-60.

Political posturing, I say.




Note the skewed planform alignment amongst other things. I have a hard time believing the Chinese truly have a grasp on the fundamentals of VLO, but who knows.

I think the general estimate is that China is about two generations behind (in the 80's) in terms of VLO tech, but I imagine the pace they have advanced over the past 10 years or so would reduce that gap a fair bit. Also, bear in mind that the Chinese have created a lot of advanced-looking aircraft such as the J-20 but still haven't been able to bring them into production despite years of development (they can't get the engines on the J-20 right for instance).

With regards to the new drone, it might resemble the MQ-9 Reaper but its pretty easy to create a small, long endurance platform like that. The difficulty is packing it with useful sensors and them being able to reliably control it from a significant distance.