This Chinese drone is a WORLD FIRST!
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- Опубликовано: 8 окт 2022
- The WZ-7 Soar Dragon has a unique wing configuration and we are examining it in detail.
Thank you to Armament Facts / armamentfacts for the footage.
#WZ7 #UAV #HALE
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The WZ-7 Soar Dragon has a unique wing configuration and we are examining it in detail.
Thank you to Armament Facts ruclips.net/user/ArmamentFacts for the footage.
#WZ7 #UAV #HALE
Join this channel to support it:
ruclips.net/channel/UCVDkfkGRzo0qcZ8AkB4TMuwjoin
Support me on Patreon www.patreon.com/Millennium7
One off donation with PayPal www.paypal.com/paypalme/Millennium7star
Join the Discord server discord.gg/6CuWEWuhsk
Buy an Aircraft Model at Air Models! airmodels.net/?aff=173
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Ask me anything!
Take part to the community Q&A clicking the link below!
forms.office.com/r/LNPQtf3Tc0
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www.reddit.com/r/Millennium7Lounge/
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All images and additional video segments contained in the Thumbnails and/or B-roll segments are used in strict compliance with the appropriate permissions and licenses required from the source and in accordance with the RUclips Partner Program, Community guidelines & RUclips terms of service.
So called 'Artificial Intelligence' - which doesn't exist, because computational algorithms do not 'contemplate upon themselves' - 3d engineering/prototyping has proven a tendency to add structural elements ('lattices'), humans would literally _see_ no point of adding, unable to visualize _hundreds_ of seemingly marginal factors that may add up:
('AI Designed this Product: These Tools are the Future of Design' - an introduction and some examples of 'unintuitive *structural lattices'* )
ruclips.net/video/sy_llq2yq9U/видео.html
('What Is Additive Manufacturing?')
ruclips.net/video/t4S0mKjXtT4/видео.html
Mind You it's an idiot's take on a problem, not even understood (my grasp of aerodynamics boils down to 'drag is lift, therefore I can fly')...
A unmanned aircraft with a long skinny wing made to handle carrier landings is a worst case situation from the standpoint of large loads being supported by skinny structure I think it's just a strut braced wing.
The skin tags around ur eyes are very easy to remove.
Why are you keeping them?
Reminds me of kit bashing but at least it doesn't look like the usual copy cut and paste 🤔
The first thing came into my mind looking at this wing configuration is reducing wing load and therefore stall speed.
E.g. you can cruise this aircraft as fast as an airliner to the destination region and then slowly circle around desired point to monitor the situation at the place.
You forgot the most important reason, because it looks cool.
You are inviting trouble if just making weapons look cool...it reminds me of Germany in the second war with all that tanks, jet fighters, and rockets
@@bigwildcat2020 uh.... What?
I was going to mention this as a legitimate reason. The Chinese may have a different propaganda strategy than other nations, and in that case, looking cool really might be important.
@@bigwildcat2020孙子兵法 （不战而屈人之兵）
@@bigwildcat2020 We do that all the time. E.g. Zumwalt Destroyer.
My two cents: The wing configuration is to host a coil, antenna or for magnetic detection.
Playing into this as well I was wondering if it had to do with a maritime patrol role. The global wing was completely redesigned and strengthened for the triton to handle the loads of a rapid descent to lower levels to gather data on a target. This wing could be designed for the same reason
Wrong not a ultra long range MAD sensor platform. Given that the P8 can with its humongous external centreline mount radar can detect & track the Benoulli hump of a sub. Do not know what it is me things its for long endurance, long range tracking aircraft carrier battle group, USN task forces, in pre crisis situations, supplying the kill chain or keying the kill chain, with potenial hot war targets for Ballastic anti ship missiles like DF26s & DF21Ds or even longer range missiles.
Designing something that a westerner cannot even figure out the purpose of, is just to forestall the usual dismissive comment that the Chinese is again stealing some american design. 😁
Nope those are all fake and cgi. China is 100 years behind west & allies. All you see is propaganda from china And every american Knows that.
Drone, fighter jet, and missile are all fake and soviet era.
That what I thought too.
This configuration is called "advanced joined wings" or "diamond box wings". The concept has been around for many years. The idea was introduced by Julian Wolkovitch in 1980s. Its advantages may include lower induced drag, stronerg structural rigidity, and more desirable stalling and stability characteristics..etc I had one project students designed, built and tested a wind tunnel model of the advanced joined wing 6 years ago at my university.
Finally! Thank you for the reference!
On the Wikipedia page “Closed Wings” there are a couple examples that look similar, including the LM “Environmentally Responsible Aviation Project” and the “PrandtlPlane”.
I remember Chinese media and RUclips channels originated from China talking about Chinese army ect, saying that the wings were specifically like that because it is supposed to operate in the Himalayas to counter threats from India and that is why no other drone of its kind has this kind of configuration. They say it is difficult for westerners to understand because noone has conduct any research on flying military drone to such kind of circumstances like the ones of a kind in Himalayas.
Love from Greece! Keep up the good work and hope you make more videos on Chinese drones. They are an amazing topic!
That doesn't really make any sense, airliners fly at similar altitudes and they don't need that feature.
@@JainZar1 mountains have different kind of airflow enviroment and bernouli effect on the kanyons gorges and peaks ect
@@LordMacGyver13
OK, but aircraft with standard tail design are perfectly capable of flying over peaks and gorges, including the Himalayas.
@@MrRobertX70 What about in the gorges?
Galloping imagination. 🤣
Sir, the comedy from you is just superb and just well placed!
Indians Jealousy...??? 😋😛🤣🤡🤡🤡
It takes a lot to make me jump but the elephant did.
"The Elephant in the Room!" I missed that guy!😊
Great video. Its awesome to see how much the production value has increased. I remember when the audio and lighting wasnt great now everything is very professional. Thank you for the unique well produced content
I’ve heard a quote, “The beginning of wisdom is the ability to say, I don’t know “. This is why I love your channel, you know way more than me on theses subjects but whenever you don’t know, you say so! Respect!👍
i think you hit the nail on the head when you said the wind sweep was for speed. Up at that height, the U2 has to suffer with "coffin corner" because the stall speed & mach limit are literally 10kph apart.
I'm thinking two possible avenues. The first is that the aft wing functions as a sort of counter balance that allows the engine to be placed more to the aft, thus freeing up space for payload or fuel. But that's a wild guess.
The other is that the two aft wings function as a low frequency antenna and do not have an aerodynamic function at all. The low frequency antenna might be used as a means for communication for submerged submarines, comparable to the ELF used by US Navy subs (receive only) signaled by the TACAMO (Take Charge and Move Out) C-130G/Q, which dragged a long antenna cable behind it for thee same purpose. Imagine you had a broad area maritime surveillance platform (BAMS) like the MQ-4C Triton that emitted regular updates of surface contacts to submarines via ELF, which would enable the subs to avoid the surface contacts or target them - whichever is required. The small hubs on the junctions may also function as the connection for a towed antenna cables, with the wings as the stowage for the cable.
It's just an idea...
While the Triton may communicate with subs, it isn't through ELF. That requires a land based antenna several miles long.
It may be possible for the drone to receive VLF or LF signals, but not transmit.
@@ycplum7062 Seems you are right. Thanks for the heads up.
@@Pincer88 Could transmit with blue green laser to submersibles at pre arranged geo spatial temporal coordinates. Low data rate transfer, but sufficent to cue in other parts of the kill chain & or supply targeting coordinates to Sub launch ASMs/ballastic anti ship or to coordinate & control Hunter killer submersible wolf packs without resorting to VLF or when VLF is down.
Secondary to operate outside the combat radii of USN naval airpower & to hunt down P8s/AEWs/C17/C5s & other force multipliers & transports. Maybe to even launch anti ship missiles against light protected or escorted fleet auxiliaries.
@@kevinyaucheekin1319 Interesting stuff! Vaguely heard something about blue-green lasers possibly being used as an underwater lidar (sonar/radar by light) for short range underwater navigation/collison avoidance but never gave it much thought, let alone imagined it could be applied the way you suggest. Makes sense though since radar returns carry information as well. Thanks!
I also think that the tail shape was designed for radio reception.
This could be a fairing for a rhombic antenna to bounce a pulse into the ionosphere for over-the-horizon capabilities. This would imply that this surface is neutral, providing no positive or negative lift, at cruise. Incidentally, this construction also provides more rigidity to a perhaps overly aero-elastic structure.
Or maybe some Chinese boss said, "Let's make this because it looks futuristic".
That certainly possible but on such a small platform?
"Or maybe some Chinese boss said, let's make this because it looks futuristic" - unlikely. I know it's tempting to consider 'the bad guys' speaking 'weird languages' as idiots, but that's rarely the case. they're smart and capable, perhaps more than US folks, especially these days. so if a decision seems silly to us, it's safe to assume that they'll think the same.
@@the80386 Actually something like that did cross my mind. Mayhaps? PLAAF General's idea of a upgraded/refined faster/more surivable mini me variant of the MQ4C Trition.
I agree that it might serve to house antenna parts for mf/hf, but that does not preclude the forward swept wing from providing lift or being used for control -;it seems a lot (though not enough) designers will make a single element serve to enable or assist in multiple areas at the same time.
The rear wing can provide both additional lift and stability,even at the same nominal angle of attack as the front wing simply by being a different profile that gains lift faster than the main wing as the angle of attack increases. And if the rear wing simply stalls after the main wing as the angle of attack increases, then this could be quite helpful if the drone does indeed fly near the coffin corner.
@@steffigood1592 Yes, I think you are right. It is not necessary for this surface to provide lift, but it can very well do so and provide an interesting extra.
It is for lift and for stronger structure. The center of weight depends on engine and equipment weights. That’s a tail wing to lift engine and to make long wing structure stronger.
Another interesting video. I have no doubt that the Chinese spent hours and hours calculating which configuration will give the best result for the given task. You pointed out well that the box wing (actually this is not entirely a classic box wing scheme) gives the necessary rigidity to the main wing but it also gives some stall delay characteristics. What particular reason makes them adopt such an aerodynamic configuration in the cruising plane designed to fly hours in a straight line is interesting, but I am sure that they know that well. At least Soaring Dragon looks good.
Maybe low stall speeds is useful for the probable short runways in the himalayas.
@@WynnofThule Or it could be launched from CV?
"Spent hours and hours" stealing tech
@@krisashford there are so few planes using this layout that there's hardly any tech to steal
@@krisashford You forgot Paperclip and the myriad of CIA actions to steal Soviet technology. It is not a one-way street.
Many Chinese experts discussed the reason in several video, which is to make wing stronger. The American design is a lot easier, but China does not have (or not economical enough) to produce long wing with enough strength like US did, so they have to use complex wing to make up the lack of wing strength. US did design weapon with no consideration of cost, but China must consider the cost and they generally refuse to design expensive weapon, since costly weapon is not effective in their military doctrine.
I interpreted the design as a hybrid between a swept and forward-swept wing. Perhaps as an attempt to get best of both worlds: high cruise speed with better low-speed stability. Their decision to use a turbojet engine is another emphasis on speed. The sweep angle is also quite dramatic for a "long endurance" drone.
Lol...... you're just making shit up
Both wings have mutual strength AND lift. The rear wing is obviously forward swept, and wants to twist off. Dual lift thin glider wings are structurally weak, but boxed together...it's a biplane, without the outer struts. I like it!
2 gliders in 1.
.......................................
This configuration could be an antenna array? Antenna arrays like to be spread out and skinny. Helpful, in an observation platform.
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Also helpful, for ground observation and recognition personnel. It's not a U-2. In a modern battle field, radar jamming by Chinese adversaries will be heavy.
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An original idea, it's not a reverse engineered ip off.
I saw one of your videos last week, the first time I knew of you, and I meant to subscribe right then, but I must have gotten distracted and did not. I greatly admire your entire presentation - yes including the little elephant in the room scene - you are informed, accurate, and detailed enough but not too much. I look forward to seeing more of your content.
Forward pointing wings are known to be instable but in the new paradigm of design it also gives very shop angles of dives and climbs instantly. Something like one moment it can be horizontal but in an instant it can execute an almost 90 degrees change of diection. It can teduce the radius of the turning circle.
I know next to nothing about hydrodynamics, but the most immediate benefit of the short wing is that it can be easily deployed anywhere, using existing hangars, with no size fit issues.
The elephant jumpscare startled me lol 😂
... I have been watching your channel for a while now and yet ... that damn elephant still gets me everytime! Another great coverage of a unique aircraft.
The wing design shown was on the cover of Popular Mechanics September 1993. Diamond wing designed to detect stealth aircraft
Yeah, looks pretty similar. So a world's first 30 years late?
Some facts on the Taiwan ADIZ mentioned in the video:
1. ADIZ cuts into China's mainland. More so than the total land area of Taiwan.
2. Taiwan's ADIZ was designed and created by the United States Armed Forces (USAF) after the World War II.
3. Also, it is illegitimate, as it is not recognized by the International community.
I appreciate him putting that up for those that don’t know where the ADIZ covers, which is somewhat comical given part of it is over the mainland. And for many that, I’m sure, confuse it with their airspace-not like articles about it ever even go into detail about the differences and locations.
@@shmeckle666 Correct. They don't go into the details because they want to portray Сhina in a certain way. A negative way to be precise.
@@catonpillow "because they want to portray Сhina in a certain way. A negative way to be precise."
Comunists never ever needed any help in that...
"The Great Leap Forward (Second Five Year Plan) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) was an economic and social campaign led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1958 to 1962. CCP Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to reconstruct the country from an agrarian economy into a communist society through the formation of people's communes. (...) The exact number of famine deaths is difficult to determine, and estimates range from upwards of 15 million to 55 million people. Because of the uncertainties involved in estimating famine deaths caused by the Great Leap Forward or any famine, it is difficult to compare the severity of different famines. If an estimate of 30 million deaths is accepted, the Great Leap Forward was the deadliest famine in the history of China and in the history of the world.
Not all deaths during the Great Leap were from starvation. Frank Dikötter, in his book Mao's Great Famine, estimates that at least 2.5 million people were beaten or tortured to death and one million to three million committed suicide."
And if anyone wonders the guy responsible for all of that is a huge hero according to CCP...
And for catonpillow Taiwan is the real evil because they want to have this type of heros as far from them as posible... (i wonder why hehe).
@@Bialy_1 Thank you for proving my point Bialy :)
@@Bialy_1 You are why no one likes Poland, and why Poland never existed for 123 years from 1795 to 1918.
Especially after thinking Frank Dikötter numbers are legit and that the CCP never condemned the GLF and CR at all.
Perhaps they wanted a wing with good lift for high altitude surveillance but reduced wingspan so it could potentially be carrier launched?
A drone that can be carrier launched but must land on land could have potentially twice the mission range of a land based equivalent.
The initial design with the swept-forward wing was shown off to the public in 2006, well before catapult-lunch aircraft carriers were a thing in China. The extended wingtips should fold for easier on-deck handling and hangaring if it was intended for carrier operations and there's no sign of that.
Of course if the intention was to be able to launch a high-altitude surveillance drone from a ski-jump carrier then reinforcing the centre of each thin wing to stop excessive flex on the jump sounds like a good idea. The engine seems more powerful than really needed for a UAV of that size but the extra power would be needed for non-catapult carrier operations. The MQ-9 Global Hawk is much heavier but has a less-powerful engine than the WZ-7.
I would think it's intended to allow an extended wingspan instead of reduced wingspan. This configuration should achieve much longer wings, higher total lift, without having much dead weight needed to strengthen it.
Informative and entertaining
It is possible they might introduce a distributed sensor antennas in the wings in the future
It does not really matter whether the rear wing is lifting or not. Me personally I think it is lifting in this case. But more important is the position of the aerodynamic center of the whole aircraft (or neutral point). This neutral point must be behind the C.G. for longitudinal stability. This is the reason why I think the aft wing creates lift (to shift the neutral point aft).
Another note to your comment on "knowing for decades doing that" refering to aerolastic tailoring: Actually not. Yes, the idea behind it is known. BUT, actually setting the carbon fibres in the direction they are supposed to be to achieve this aeroelastic tailoring is really complex until today.
The bump in front may also be due to the area rule in the transonic flight regime.
great video as usual.
Unless it is a way to increase the lift of the wing, without increasing its length. And such arrangement is actually a study model for a carrier deployed HALO UAV
This wing planform was (to my knowledge) first suggested back in the early 1980's as a possible configuration for a Carrier-based anti submarine platform to replace the S3 Viking. The illustration showed a manned aircraft with essentially the same wing planform but with podded engines on the main fuselage at the rear. While many comments below allude to possible sensor fits in the wings (and hence the chosen shape) I believe the aerodynamic benefits(?) are the main reason for this wing shape? Reduced weight, increased lifting surface area, increased range (the FSW span decreases fuel consumption), increased airframe strength/rigidity....
Seems to me an anti-sub patrol platform would share many of the requirements of a long-range surveilance drone?
Very interesting! 👍
In my opinion it has multiple purposes of using that type of wing, my thought the major design come out that way is to support the long slender wings, as an act of stabilizer if you may.
Your video just popped into my RUclips feed randomly and I clicked out of curiosity. The video was surprisingly excellent! You have a good level of humor combined with a high level of analysis. I really liked your process of looking at the extra foils. Aerodynamically, they do seem unnecessary. Perhaps there is some sort of sensor or communication device which needs to be spread out and oriented within the forward swept foils? That's my idea. Cheers. I have subscribed.
Welcome aboard!
I believe the first time I saw this wing configuration was as a concept design in Popular Mechanics in the late 1980s. It is a biplane with two lifting wings.
One issue with forward swept wings is a tendency for the tips to flex downward. This was an issue with the forward swept experimental planes back then. By combining a backward and forward design, they support each other. There probably is a lot of stress where the come together. That may be the reason for the “keystone” pylons. Also , there may be some tricky vortices generated there.
I wonder if it operates at similar altitudes as the US drones, 50k to 55k feet. It could have a faster cruising speed than a straight wing design and enough lift to efficiently operate at higher altitudes.
The tips dont flex downward... the problem with forward swept wings is torsional divergence.. so twisting "upward". Therefore, forward swept wings must be built with high torsional stiffness which makes them heavy... This is ofc not a problem in this videos drone configuration.
@@AndreaSSLeventiSS I remember the twisting was a big issue before composites.
My guess, most likely this wing design refers to the so called "Box-Wing" configuration (its allmost 100y old concept from the father of Aerodynamic Ludwig Prandtl introduced 1924) , the aim is to reduce induced drag by increasing wing span and still maintaining relativ compact dimensions. So both wings (fwd & Aft) producing upward lift, though with a certain ratio. This gives beside the lower induced drag also advantages since there is no parasitric downforce needed. Of course everything comes with a trade, to structural design has some implications such as extra weight coming from shear forces and bending moments, etc, also in an aerodynamic point of view this very particular design does attach the aft wing arround center span of the fwd main wing. For sure not the "classica" Box-Wing configuration, where the vertical attaching elements are to be found towards the tips, acting as VTPs. But it seems to work obviously.
yes and 2 more points are: more interference drag and classical boxwing has been shown to suffer from aeroelastic instabilities.
Is it possible that is to lodge large electronic warfare sensor ans was use to make a box stiffer but lighter structure
the damn elephant legit surprised me
You must be new to this channel.
@@bastadimasta yeah, I've been new to this channel since 2 years ago
I'm wondering if the Chinese have introduced Wing Warping on the swept forward section of the wing to compensate for changes in CG over different mission profiles, the warp would only have to be a few degrees to make a big difference.
You got a lot of good comments, and I think most have merit, particularly structure strength and the large low frequency rhombic antenna idea (although other antennas/magnetometer coils might be used). However, I’m almost certain I have seen this design before (it became a Chinese favorite). I cant source it but if folks look around the net, I’ll bet they find a prototype that someone built and tested before the Chinese.
Tandem wing or canard don't have to be inherently instable, as long as the front wing have higher equivalent AOA than aft wing in trim, it's stable, a tail plane could also have positive lift and be stable.
It might provide higher L/D thus better fuel mileage, now a days even airlines want to put CG as aft as possible for long hauler to save that extra bit fuel.
I think the second wing pushes enough air downward to counter the downward pressure of the radar at the front, so theres less drag on the main wing, increasing cruise speed fuel efficiency, other thing im not sure of is air density at the drones expected altitude, there could be that to consider aswell
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻. Nice vídeo !
An unusual drone configuration, alas we cannot really figure out why it is so.
A good video M7.
I'm not sure about cruising speed, but I my best guess that it has some consideration to survivability. That means a higher top speed (as evidenced by the swept wing), and also requires a much stiffer wing. The problem isn't so much the static loads. It is flutter. If one of these dives to avoid a threat it could easily find itself going 950km/h in relatively thick air at low AoA. Designing a lightweight long thin wing that doesn't flutter in those conditions is not trivial, even with composites.
One thought from a non-engineer, could the wing design simply not be for support to save on using expensive composites? Drones are essentially disposable so build them cheap and a lot of them. Save the exotic materials for where they are really needed?
Maybe wings are a VLF antenna for detecting subs, subs communication?
I jumped of fear because of that elephant !
I think the wing is there for, aerodynamic stability at very slow speed of travel.... remember the su47 berkut had a similar forward facing delta wing.
i think it's a field of operations live feed drone, so it may have to travel very slow in comparison.
Interpherometric analysis of long wave electromagnetic signals, the 4 wings each have their antennas set?
The wing configuration is similar to a number of concept designs from Lockheed Martin from the turn of the century.
The wing was called a box wing.
It is not. A box wing has to reach to the tip of the lower wing.
That is not a box wing, as @Gökay says
So it’s about 1/3 as good as drones the U.S has been flying for the last 2-3 decades. Impressive!
1) Backward wing has to be lifting, because it doesn't lie behind outer part of the main wing.
2) It is a lighter construction overall, because backward wing works as a brace - it almost halves required rigidness of inner part of the main wing.
3) *Wing is swept because it gives better obserwation angles for antenna radar*.
4) Radar absorbing wing should also reduce interference on radar.
5) Max speed is certaintly higher than 850 km/h, 1000 km/h is possible for sure (F-117A has only double thrust).
Diamond shape wing is a clever structural and aerodynamic solution : strong and lighter to achieve a high aspect ratio wing that means higher speed with a "second wing" acting as a lift generator too.
I appreciate your honesty!
When you don't know, you don't know!
Thanks!
Mannn, i love your videos ❣️
Reduce structural weight for the same area of 1 larger wing and wind span. 2 critical lift wings to reducing drag at high speed, high altitude cruise. Increase lift as stack wing structure at low speed. It is good solution for both high and low speed.
That shape helps stabilize the craft. Think of the rear wing as lift multiplier or making it more efficient at lower speeds at mid and higher attitudes, requiring less energy and more range/time over or near areas of interest..... additionally gthe aggressive sweep would allow for high-speeds to n from said areas of interest
a likely idea is that its an interim design towards a more stealthy profile without the V tail or any vertical control surface , a tandem wing in such arrangement , if coupled with control surface within both the swept back and the swept forward wing part could contribute to control flight without the need for such vertical surfaces , then another reason is aero and structural loading , obviously a box kind of construction contribute to reeling in the flexing and reducing the wing load
My interpretation is the following: the drone mission is high altitude recon and surveillance, with the capability to reach the target area at high speed and to loiter for a long period of time. These features bring with them contradictory aerodynamic requirements. To fly at high altitude, where the air is thin, and possibly at low speed, to increase loitering time, it is necessary to overcome the risk of stall. For this purpose a lot of lifting surface is required to reduce the wing loading. Because of the thin air, and the low speed, the drone needs to fly at high angle of attack. This brings high induced drag to the picture. To reduce induced drag a high stretch is required, like in sailplanes. However sailplanes fly at half the speed of this drone or less, so the problems of static structural stability are much much bigger here. Splitting the lifting surface in two helps with stretching as well as with structural static. Connecting the two surfaces helps non only structurally, but also to reduce induced drag, as per Prandl Box Wing. Control stability around the transversal axis is warranted by the V shape of the tail surfaces, as a consequence the, forward swept, rear wing does not need to be involved in this task. Also an artificial stability controller is not required. A long stretched straight wing is not adequate for high speed transfer to the target area because of compression and risk of flutter and twist. Hence the swept planform became required. If arranged in a biplane configuration, in WW1 style, the two surfaces would strongly interfere with each other. Then the solution adopted was to sweep one surface backward and one forward. Both are swept, but they do not overlap each other and therefore do not interfere.
The guess is that because the wingspan is too wide, such a design holds the wing tip not easily bend and touch the ground when the drone is landing. Secondly, The design of the wing layout has the characteristics of high lift coefficient, high lift-to-drag ratio, light structure weight and strong loading capacity, overcomes structural defects of conventional high aspect ratio wings.
I gotta give it to you brother the elephant in the room joke got me ,I subscribed too.thank you
Could there be something heavy aft of the drone, requiring some lift there? Maybe a lot of fuel, or particularly heavy sensors?
I'm wondering if the rear wing is for sensors/antennae, or partly for sensors.
possibilities:
1. perhaps it allows higher sprint speeds and lower loiter speeds?
2. if it creates inherent instability, something desirable in a fighter but not a recon drone, perhaps the Chinese have noticed that recon drones are often tweaked into armed applications and designed the thing with that eventual role in mind?
A joined wing aircraft is not new at all in the aerospace research community. It has several advantages over a conventional wing aircraft e.g. light weight due to stiffer structures (like a cantilever beam with 4 fixed supports), lower induced drag as the horizontal tail has no tip vortices, higher trimmed lift force etc. Disadvantages can be difficulties in manufacturing and its nonlinear behaviour when the wing is subject to gust loads, which could cause difficulties in load alleviation.
Does this wing shape adapt to the aircraft carrier in order to reduce the space occupied by storage and take-off preparation?
Is there a loop in that for magnetic field measurements?
it seems like center of gravity is a bit more up on plane and the lifting surfaces are conpensating that with center of lift. it looks like the drone would fly nose up which is making it more stable during slow speed flight
Sir I'll be honest to you, I admire your personality more than your technical knowledge ✌
Forward swap wing naturally twists up. Maybe countering some other force on the bigger wing?
I would guess that it is all about minimising the vibrations of the platform, which is very relevant for the performance of the sensors on board.
“How Many Poles does it take to change a light bulb, Remember that one’ ha! ha! ha!!!” 💀🦍💀🦇💀😳💀🖕🏽💀🦠💉🦠💉💀💉🦠
I wonder if it might be related to trim? What percentage of its weight is fuel? How much CG shift will it experience and will this impact stability and thus trim efficiency?
They say it simplified controls
I'm thinking packaging reasons are probably the major factor. For some reason, they might want to reduce wing span while maintaining a high aspect ratio and large area wing, so they needed something like a tandem wing. The box wing design was probably structurally easier, like you said. Sweeping the wing probably just helps with structure and putting the center of lift in the right spot.
The butterfly tail looks aerodynamically wasteful but appears that it might be planform aligned with the bottom fuselage for RCS reduction.
Also, knowing the importance of propaganda for the Chinese, the fact that it looks cool may be substantially important.
Aft wing has antenna in the wing to boost single ?
Hi,
love your work!
And the humour!
I think you need to make friends with robot sweeper again, maybe offer it chocolate wrappers to clean up, as a gift! hehe!
I have zero technical knowledge of flight, but like being a passenger!
That forward swept tail wing is bizarre!
I made me wonder, is it to increase lift using less power?
Maybe it can travel a lot further than they wish anyone to know?
Whichever, or whatever
the reason, I hope the USAF has some lovely lasers or microwave heat gun-thingies waiting to send them all down into the drink!
Can't wait for the next analysis and a pink elephant!
That forward swift wing which is a balance wing, similar to a shark side fins. It doesn't have a 2 tail configuration like other drones.
I think it has to do with payload capability. While it's obviously a reconicense drone. Many carry a few lethal missile systems on them. Giving them a strike capability also. Maybe this configuration gives the drone that lethal ability.
Cool
I have a question, when can we have an analysis on Otis the robot? It looks like it's a secret future technology
Secret Chinese tech mate 😉
And it can also clean the carpet
My first thought when looking at the thumbnail picture - is it a fancy biplane?
Add one possibility. Reduce wingspan. Increase stability . Beneficial if they plan to operate in coastal , mountain airfields.
Wikipedia said this: more rigid, less flexible wing than other configurations, with benefits said to include an increased lift-to-drag ratio and less complex flight controls than a HALE UAV with a conventional wing would require.
Bro that elephant in the room woke the shit out of me at 1am, LOL
This appears to be an aerodynamic features may as well electromagnetic. Consider the whole structure as an elaborated air borne dipole(s) radar antenna for HF and SF bands to detect mm wave stealth planes.
May a sensor in the wing lead to this config?
Hi,May be to give the drone stiffness for dodging maneuver?
Thankyou.
I was thinking exo-skeleton to allow the swept wing to have less structure or mass, or to be more open internally for carrying some unknown payload. Or to allow for carrying heavy payloads under the swept wing.
I could be risking too much but maybe, just maybe the answer is very simple: for some reason they just want to make the wingspan shorter.
If it is true that both wing generate lift then if they used a single one it would have to be bigger. If they wanted to avoid that this would be the obvious solution. It would make even more sense if this was a carrier-based drone but who knows.
I think it's to trade in a bit of endurance (non-ideal wing gives you more weight/drag) for some maneuverability (more rigid wing can withstand higher g loads). I think it will make a plane like this a bit more survivable in the event a missile is shot at it. Long range AA missiles at the end of their effective range are gliding to their target. Maneuvering wildly to make the missiles change direction will reduce the chance of them actually reaching you. You can afford to lose drones because there's no pilots in them, but when you lose one, you also lose the intelligence it was currently providing.
As someone once said: "It's almost as if they have different priorities than the westerners..."
Maneuverability would be useful if it helps you say, pull up quickly from a short runway.
more lift at high altitude? if it's designed for reconnaissance, being able to loiter at a somewhat lower speed could be advantageous for intelligence gathering
Aerodynamically I'm quite sure that the forward swept wing is lifting. This isn't just an uneducated guess. First some background. I was going to be an aerospace engineer. I did two years of mechanical engineering at a junior college and was going to transfer to a 4 year school to finish the aerospace degree. But then I decided I didn't want to sit behind a desk for 40 years, got in a commercial aviation program, completing my private pilot licence and half of my instrument rating. After seeing how hard commercial aviation was on family life as a friend who was ahead of me worked on building hours, I ended up at the fire department, and am now retired. But my lifelong love of aviation stayed. I have flown, designed, and scratch built radio controlled aircraft for 35 years, including canard and forward swept designs. Most of my RC planes have been high performance slope gliders, not slow, floaty things, though I have had 4 of those. If you're interested, look up "dynamic soaring" videos. Also, check out the Wikipedia page for dynamic soaring to understand how it works. I'm the guy squatting down in the photo of RC dynamic soaring on that page.
The first thing I looked at was moment arm of the forward swept wing. It is a relatively short distance from the CG. This creates inefficiency, requiring more down-force, and thus more induced drag, for pitch changes than a tailplane located farther toward the rear with a longer moment arm. (moment arm is roughly synonymous to lever arm) With a longer lever, less force is needed. There is plenty of fuselage sticking way back from the root of the forward swept section, so it makes no sense to control pitch that far forward.
The next thing I looked at is the angle of the V-tail and compared it with the V-tail on the RQ-4 Global Hawk. The WZ-7 has a slightly less angled tail than the RQ-4. The V-tail on the Global Hawk is clearly used for pitch control. Therefore, the WZ-7 tail, which has the longest moment arm possible on this airframe, is clearly used for pitch control.
With both wings creating lift, the range and lifting capacity of the plane will be greater. think of it basically as a canard plane with the forward surface larger than the rear. Once again, it makes no sense to have downforce that close to the CG on such a large lifting surface that will create unnecessary drag while a perfectly good V-tail is located further aft. It also makes no sense to apply downforce in the same area as the lifting force of the outer section of the forward wing. I have no doubt that I could easily make a stable RC airplane using this planform with no stabilization gyros. That is not to say that a fly-by-wire system isn't used, nor is it to say that they aren't flying with the CG shifted far enough aft that a fly-by-wire flight control system isn't required, similar to the F-16. The FBW system is required on the full sized F-16 only because the CG is too far aft for static stability. It is not because of any feature of the shape of the plane forcing instability. The exact same shape with a farther forward CG is statically stable and easy to control as an RC plane. If the full sized F-16 was balanced like the RC versions it would be possible to easily control with a traditional hydraulic flight control system like those used in older fighter jets.
As to why this configuration is used rather than a larger chord single wing, it makes sense that there is something like an antenna design need that this solves, but that is outside of my area of expertise.
Thank you!
The drone might be heavier than we think. And that's why this configuration is needed.
Could that wing be there to house an antenna array?
I was wondering about the second second wing, whether or not it is a wing or a wing housing for sensor arrays or camera's possibly. Just thought...
Since this video is about drones, I want to voice my opinion about drones in general and hope to get some correction/education back: war in Ukraine showed the importance of drones in a classic, large scale, high tech modern war once and for all. From now on, every army that has some money has to produce or purchase drones for these roles: for the infantry and any armored vehicle on the ground so they don't advance blindly- for artillery to spot and guide advanced shells- for commanders to see the battlefield and coordinate the actions between troops. If some of those drones that can deliver ordnance, that would be a cherry on top.
Could it be some kind of large coil using both wings some kind of sensor
This is a Box Wing or Closed Wing - the aft surface would be lifting.
It supports the forward wing, allowing it to be thinner and more efficient. This is like a glider. They tend to be up to 130% more efficient than normal because the wing can have a low cord and more surface area.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_wing
I guess, there will be more weight attached to the wing in the future.