Domestic CH5 reconnaissance and strike integrated UAV.
The domestic Golden Eagle heavy oil piston engine is equipped with CH5 UAV.
Recently, it was reported that the domestic Golden Eagle Aviation Heavy Oil Piston Engine was officially ignited and put into operation, marking a breakthrough in the development of the domestic Aviation Heavy Oil Piston Engine. The development of the Golden Eagle engine not only provides abundant power for domestic UAVs. It also paved the way for domestic UAVs to be put on ships. Judging from the relevant news, the power of the domestic Golden Eagle engine reaches 600kw, close to 800 horsepower. This indicator is already comparable to the American MQ-9 UAV engine, which uses the Honeywell TPE331 turboprop engine, which has a power of 671kW and 900 horsepower. Judging by the power indicators, the Golden Eagle engine should be a domestic CH-5 large reconnaissance and strike integrated UAV engine.
The Golden Eagle engine is developed by Anhui Hangrui Power, and the Aerospace Science and Technology Group is one of the shareholders of the company, and the Aerospace Science and Technology Group is the development unit of the domestic rainbow series of UAVs. Therefore, it is speculated that the Golden Eagle engine is equipped with the domestic CH-5 large reconnaissance and strike integrated UAV, but in fact, the lack of available engines is the bottleneck problem that restricts the CH-5 UAV.
The CH-4 has achieved excellent results in the international market, but the CH5 is not satisfactory.
Wing Loong 2 has achieved dazzling results in the international market before the Rainbow series UAVs of the Aerospace Science and Technology Group, and the CH-4 UAV has won a large order of 200 UAVs in Saudi Arabia. On this basis, the Aerospace Science and Technology Group has launched the CH-5 UAV, ready to expand the market. However, the CH-5 UAV has a problem, and that is the lack of engines. As an aerospace system unit, the Aerospace Science and Technology Group is not responsible for the development of aero engines, and there are many blanks in the field of small aero engines in China, so the CH series mostly uses imported engines, which are easy to be controlled by others. The Aerospace Science and Technology Group originally planned to choose a turboprop engine for the CH-5, but the domestic turboprop engine was in charge of the aviation industry, which had already equipped the Pterodactyl-2 with a domestic turboprop 9 engine, so it was naturally unwilling to give its production capacity to Aerospace Technology and create competitors for itself. There were also many obstacles to the introduction of foreign engines, in which case the Aerospace Science and Technology Group had to choose an aviation piston engine for the CH-5 with a power of only 300 horsepower, while the turboprop 9 engine was close to 800 horsepower, which was less than half of the turboprop 9. Due to the drag of the engine, there is a significant gap in the performance of the CH-5 compared with the Pterodactyl 2, so foreign users are more inclined to the Pterodactyl 2 UAV. There is news that the Pterodactyl 2 has won the markets of the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries, while the CH5 is in a state of no harvest.
The new engine allows the CH5 to fully exploit the range performance of the payload
Aerospace Science and Technology is determined to establish its own engine production capacity and break through the bottleneck of engines. Considering that the development of the engine from scratch is time-consuming and laborious, Aerospace Science and Technology has adopted the method of borrowing chickens to lay eggs and investing in Hangrui Power to solve the engine problem. Judging from the relevant information, the Golden Eagle engine is a large Skylark engine of Hangrui Company, the latter is an opposing four-cylinder, four-stroke engine with a power of 100kw, and the Golden Eagle engine adopts an opposing eight-cylinder, with a power increase of 600kw and a weight of about 500 kg. The Skylark engine adopts new technologies such as high-pressure common rail, turbocharged intercooling, dry lubrication, FADEC system, and full-engine liquid cooling, which has the advantages of high power-to-weight ratio, low fuel consumption, high altitude and attenuation. The overhaul interval reaches 2000 hours, which is very important for UAVs, because modern UAVs have a long endurance and empty time, and the duration of a mission may reach 10 hours or even 20 hours.
The MQ1C drone was replaced with a heavy oil piston engine
With the CH-5 UAV equipped with the Golden Eagle engine, the performance will take a big step forward. Due to the rapid increase in engine power, the maximum take-off weight and load of the UAV have not been increased, and the Aerospace Science and Technology Group has revealed that the maximum load of CH-5 is close to 1 ton, and it can carry up to 16 small air-to-surface missiles. Due to the increase in engine power, there is more residual power, and the performance is better in flying, take-off and landing in high-temperature plateau environments. The main market for domestic UAVs is the Middle East and North Africa, when there were many high temperature deserts, and the power-to-weight ratio of aircraft was higher, and the CH-5 had not competed with the Pterodactyl 2 before, which may be the reason.
Domestic UAVs have already begun to be simulated on ships
For the CH-5 UAV, the choice of a heavy oil piston engine can further expand the market. As we all know, the army's main battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, etc. all use heavy oil engines, so the army also hopes that UAVs use heavy oil engines, and the US military MQ-1C UAV replaces the MQ-1 gasoline engine with a heavy oil engine. Therefore, the choice of heavy oil piston engine for CH-5 will help it to develop the domestic and foreign army markets. There is another area that cannot be ignored, and that is carrier-based UAVs. UAVs like the CH-5 have a long range and a long time in the air, allowing them to conduct long-term maritime search and surveillance. The MQ-9B introduced by India is a maritime surveillance version, equipped with a surface search radar and an optoelectronic pod to perform maritime surveillance tasks. For carrier-based UAVs, considering safety and other factors, the Navy also wants it to be equipped with heavy oil engines, so the CH-5 is equipped with heavy oil engines to pave the way for it to board aircraft carriers in the future. Aero engines need long-term research and precipitation, and accumulate steadily. After hard work in the early stage, domestic aero engines are expected to usher in a bumper harvest period, which can provide more powerful power support for the development of domestic aircraft and UAVs.