The hottest interview with rainbow UAV technology

Exclusive interview with "Rainbow" UAV technology expert Wang Yongzhi: decrypt how the large stealth UAV is refined into

Photography: Wanquan

[Global Times report, special mission to Zhuhai, Liu Yang] on the 5th, on the eve of the opening of the 12th China International Aerospace Expo (hereinafter referred to as Zhuhai Air show), many multimedia saw a huge It looks a bit like the mysterious flying wing UAV of the American x-47b. According to the site introduction, the UAV is named rainbow-7. The outside world has speculated whether the rainbow-7 exhibited by the 11th Academy of aerospace, which developed the aerial bomb truck rainbow-5, has strong stealth ability and penetration performance. What is the performance of the UAV? What operational scenarios will it be applied to in the future? It can also be the same pp/epdm as rainbow-4 and color What kind of UAV formation does T20 use in different parts of hong-5? In response to these questions, the global times made an exclusive interview with Dr. Wang Yongzhi, a rainbow UAV technology expert, at the air show

the layout of rainbow-7 wings triggered speculation

Global Times was attracted by its huge wingspan when it first saw rainbow-7 on the booth of the 11th Research Institute of Aerospace Science and Technology Group on the 5th. Its huge wingspan occupied almost 2/3 of the width of the exhibition hall where it was located. It took several angles to take pictures of its complete fuselage, and even the media took pictures of its overall wingspan, Climb up a very high exhibition ladder and shoot from the perspective of God. Under the huge wings of rainbow-7, the latest rainbow-10 unmanned tilt rotor aircraft launched by rainbow company appears to be more small and exquisite

Dr. wangyongzhi, a technical expert of rainbow UAV, told the global times on the 5th that the rainbow-7 is a high-altitude, subsonic and invisible UAV. At present, the rainbow-7 is in the detailed design stage. This time, it is displayed in the form of a full-scale prototype. It has a maximum takeoff weight of 13 tons and a wingspan of 22 meters, and has strong stealth and penetration capabilities. The positioning of the Rainbow series of unmanned aircraft spectrum is the aviation equipment for strategic information support and high-value target strike. It can carry out fire suppression, reconnaissance and surveillance, long-term early warning and other tasks in high-risk environments. Caihong-3, caihong-4 and caihong-5 adopt the traditional UAV configuration, and caihong-7 adopts the flying wing configuration with typical stealth characteristics, so it has strong stealth performance. With the breakthrough of aerodynamic shape, flight control must also be broken through, because it is necessary to break through the control technology of tailless flying wing configuration. In terms of power, it adopts a turbofan engine that can meet the requirements of its high-altitude and high-speed indicators. The successful development of rainbow-7 will make China one of the few countries in the world with the ability to develop unmanned aerial vehicles with high altitude, high speed and stealth characteristics. At present, rq-180 and x-47b in the United States and neurons in Europe have similar performance in the world. Rainbow-7 will have the same performance as the above models after successful development

is there any technical inheritance relationship between rainbow-7, rainbow-4 and rainbow-5? According to Wang Yongzhi, rainbow-7 will continue to inherit the advantages of rainbow-4 and rainbow-5, such as high reliability, high attendance, general ground station, fully automatic control technology and so on. In addition, it will also adopt a series of advanced technologies that have not been used in previous models. As for the specific technical route to achieve stealth performance, Wang Yongzhi said that it will be achieved through comprehensive stealth design and solutions such as shape stealth, painting of radar absorbing stealth materials, body structure and so on

Photography: Wanquan

rainbow-7 can be used as the bodyguard of the fourth generation aircraft

why is it necessary to launch a stealth UAV at present? Wang Yongzhi said that the premise of the use of conventional UAVs in conventional wars is to have air control, and the use of UAVs in high-risk environments requires that they have strong stealth and penetration capabilities. Rainbow-7 can perform relevant combat tasks in high-risk environments, conduct firepower suppression, electronic warfare, reconnaissance operations, and directly attack or guide weapons to attack high-value targets in the battlefield. High altitude, high speed and stealth will be the development trend of high-end UAV, so we launch rainbow-7 UAV

caihong-5 is loved by Chinese military fans as a bomb truck, while the maximum takeoff weight of caihong-7 can reach 13 tons. What improvement will this bring to its future application? Wang Yongzhi said that the rainbow-7 has the characteristics of long flight time and can carry out continuous reconnaissance and surveillance in the enemy's high-risk environment. The powerful mounting ability can enable it to mount more advanced reconnaissance loads and more strike weapons, and perform the task of observing and attacking the enemy's high-value targets

in the face of the international continuous development of UAV formation flying and the research and exploration of the future combat mode of UAV and UAV formation, what role will rainbow-7 play? Wang Yongzhi believes that the rainbow-7 can perform tasks in combination with manned aircraft, including the fourth generation stealth fighters, such as using its stealth performance and long endurance performance to perform forward reconnaissance and surveillance missions, and can cooperate with manned fighters and early warning aircraft

when talking about the future development direction of the stealth UAV, Wang Yongzhi said that the rainbow-7 is mainly based on meeting the development needs of China's own related equipment. If it conforms to the national export policy, it will also help improve the national defense level of friendly countries

Photography: Wanquan

Ocean or the next application direction

according to the global times, rainbow currently has a model series with a maximum takeoff weight from 2.2 kg to 3.3 tons. It is the military UAV series with the most complete spectrum of real-time or chronic stimulus response caused by many domestic chemicals. With the development of rainbow-7 with a maximum takeoff weight of 13 tons, It will further improve the seriation development of rainbow UAV. At the air show site, I saw that the strong lineup of UAVs and rich exhibits under rainbow were the most in previous air shows. Not only rainbow-4, rainbow-5 and other star products appear again. According to experts, relying on the huge advantages of heavy load, long flight time and long range. Rainbow-5 is suitable for hanging a variety of weapons and has strong flexibility. Rainbow-5 can also be used for civil use and display its skills in maritime patrol. The global times saw at the scene that suspected sea scanning loads were mounted under the belly of rainbow-4 and rainbow-5. The solar powered UAV can not only provide a new situation awareness and information relay platform, but also be used for land and resources investigation, environmental monitoring, and the function of replacing communication satellites at a lower cost. In some hot ocean areas, several solar powered UAVs that can fly continuously for a long time can be hung over the relevant sea areas for a long time. We also saw a new tilt rotor color similar to the American Osprey aircraft at the scene and manually loaded the hong-10 UAV for the first time. It is understood that rainbow-10 is a new type of unmanned aerial vehicle integrating helicopter technology and fixed wing aircraft technology. It takes off and lands vertically in helicopter mode and cruises rapidly in fixed wing aircraft mode. Rainbow-10 can perform reconnaissance, detection, communication relay, search, target indication, relay guidance and other tasks

judging from the practice of foreign forces, large unmanned aerial vehicles have plans to go on board. Will there be a shipboard version of rainbow-7 in the future? Wang Yongzhi revealed that the currently developed rainbow-7 is mainly aimed at taking off and landing on land. According to the requirements of taking off and landing on ships and the use of marine environment, it will have the ability to be refitted into a ship based type in the future. At the same time, the rainbow-7 will also improve China's ability to safeguard maritime rights and interests after it is loaded with mission loads such as sea search radar