Drones: From “useless” to “pioneer”

Written by reporter Duan Ran Edited by Ding Lin New Media Editor Lv Bingxin Interviewed expert: Wang Yanan (Editor-in-Chief of Aviation Knowledge)

In recent years, my country's drone family has grown stronger and stronger, and has shown an unstoppable development momentum in the military and civilian fields. The 14th Zhuhai Air Show, held at the end of 2022, presented a shocking audio-visual feast for military fans and aviation enthusiasts. In addition to the J-20, Y-20 and other major weapons that "show off in the air", various equipment participating in the static display are also particularly dazzling, including the WZ-8, Rainbow-7, Wing Loong-3, Attack-11, "Cloud Shadow", "Spinner"... showing my country's leading position in large drone technology in the world.
How did the drone industry become a strategic emerging industry, transforming from a "lukewarm" industry into an air force that countries are competing to develop?

“From big to small”: Flying out of the shadow of traditional aircraft

Nowadays, when people mention "drones", the first thing that comes to mind is often those small and portable four-wing civilian drones. They are mainly used to meet people's needs for aerial photography, adding a different perspective for us to observe the world. In contrast, military drones look more like traditional aircraft, and many of their "predecessors" are "big guys".
During World War I, in order to deal with the air threat posed by the German Zeppelin airship, a British engineer had a sudden idea to use the latest radio remote control device at the time to create an unmanned aircraft to hit the airship. Although this "brain hole" was not implemented in the end, it became the origin of the development of drones in the future.
Soon after, the Americans invented the automatic gyro stabilizer and used this technology to transform a Curtiss N-9 trainer aircraft into an unmanned aerial vehicle and successfully test-flew it.

▲In 1917, the United States transformed the first drone based on the Curtiss N-9 biplane (Source: U.S. Naval Research Institute)
As the first drone in human history, it can carry more than 100 kilograms of bombs and fly about 80 kilometers, fully demonstrating its potential combat value.
In 1935, the British developed a drone named "Queen Bee" based on the "Moth" trainer aircraft. Compared with the early drones, the "Queen Bee" can achieve unmanned landing and recovery, and is no longer a "disposable item". At this time, the basic functions of drones gradually took shape.

▲During World War II, British Prime Minister Churchill inspected the British Air Force's "Queen Bee" drone (Photo source: British Imperial War Museum)
However, for a long time afterwards, the concept of drones has been tepid, always like a "shadow" of manned aircraft of the same era - they are often based on the technology of manned aircraft, the only difference is that they are operated by radio remote control, and their functions and usage scenarios are mostly based on manned aircraft. Due to the limitations of radio technology at the time, the application of drones soon encountered a ceiling and became a "chicken rib" existence.
In the 1950s, the U.S. military developed the BQM-34 "Firebee" jet drone. In addition to winning the honor of "the first jet drone", the greatest significance of the "Firebee" is that it truly realized the miniaturization and multi-purpose of drones. It is only 7 meters long and has a wingspan of only 3.91 meters, which is much smaller than manned aircraft at the time, but it has a maximum range of 1,282 kilometers and can fly in the air for more than 4 hours at a speed of 800 kilometers per hour.

▲The BQM-34 Firebee UAV on display at the National Air Force Museum of the United States (Photo credit: National Air Force Museum of the United States)
Initially, the Firebee was used only as a target drone. But its platform advantages soon became apparent, and the U.S. military installed various professional equipment on it, expanding its missions such as aerial reconnaissance, patrol, and ground attack. It was not until the 1980s that the Firebee was retired, becoming the most equipped UAV system to date.
Since the Firebee, people have finally "unlocked" the correct use of drones and discovered that they have a series of irreplaceable advantages: since there is no need to consider the physiological limits of pilots, drones can break free from the shackles of traditional aircraft and can be flexibly designed in size and shape, flight speed and altitude according to different combat needs. Coupled with low manufacturing and maintenance costs, drones quickly became the "vanguard" in special combat environments.
In the decades after World War II, military drones were designed to be smaller and smaller, and were constantly deployed at the battalion and company levels. In the 1980s, Israel developed the groundbreaking small reconnaissance drone "Pioneer", which was only 4 meters long, 5 meters wide, and had a maximum take-off weight of less than 200 kilograms.

▲RQ-2 "Pioneer" drone developed by Israel (Photo source: military.com)
This "light as a swallow" small aircraft can fly 185 kilometers at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters and perform medium/short-range aerial reconnaissance missions, which fills the gap in tactical aerial reconnaissance. Therefore, once it was launched, it became a blueprint for various aviation powers to emulate, and the US military directly purchased it in large quantities.

"From small to big": drone platformization is an inevitable trend

"Drones are developing in two main directions. One is miniaturization or even micro-miniaturization. Some countries have developed special drones that are only the size of mosquitoes," Wang Yanan, editor-in-chief of Aviation Knowledge, told reporters. "The other is large-scale development, which is also a direction that is being actively studied and paid attention to."
Although small drones are more flexible, their flying capabilities are greatly limited due to their short stature, and they appear to be "incapable" of performing more complex and changeable tasks.
After entering the 21st century, a number of large-scale unmanned aerial vehicle platforms with wide bodies and long ranges have been put into use, and the US MQ-1 "Predator" is one of the best.

▲MQ-1 Predator drone carrying precision-guided bombs (Photo credit: Airforce Technology)
This large drone is over 9 meters long and has a wingspan of nearly 15 meters. Its range is over 1,250 kilometers (up to 3,000 kilometers for the improved version). In addition to various navigation equipment and radar systems, the Predator can also carry ground-to-ground missiles, truly integrating reconnaissance and combat functions, greatly improving combat efficiency.
Later, the United States launched the RQ-4 Global Hawk, a larger and longer-range jet drone. Its 13.5-meter length and 35.4-meter wingspan even exceed many manned fighter jets, and its range of more than 20,000 kilometers achieves "global coverage."

▲The RQ-4 Global Hawk drone developed by the United States has a wingspan of 35.4 meters (Photo source: imgur.com)
"Large UAVs have two main advantages: one is that they can stay in the air for a long time. Many large UAVs can stay in the air for 40 hours or even longer. The other is that the payload they carry is very large, including radars, communication relay stations, and various weapons and ammunition. What kind of equipment it carries determines what kind of mission it can handle," Wang Yanan explained to reporters.
At the same time, my country's UAV development entered the fast lane and quickly became a world leader in the "large-scale" track - from the initial single-mission target drone, to the tactical unmanned reconnaissance drone that catches up with the world's advanced level, to the reconnaissance and strike drone that has achieved technological overtaking, to various types of high-altitude, high-speed, stealth drones that meet special mission requirements, my country's large UAVs have embarked on a distinctive development path.
The "Rainbow" series is undoubtedly the most mature and widely used large-scale UAV platform in the family. In 2004, the first-generation models "Rainbow-1" and "Rainbow-2" were successfully developed and mass-produced, becoming the forerunner of my country's advanced large-scale UAVs; the "Rainbow-3" launched in 2007 can carry the domestically produced AR-1 air-to-ground missile, and truly possesses the combat capability of reconnaissance and strike; soon after, the "Rainbow-4" and "Rainbow-5" with larger bodies and stronger combat capabilities were launched one after another. The latter has a take-off weight of more than 3 tons and can carry 16 air-to-ground missiles, just like an "ammunition depot in the sky", and its combat capability has far surpassed the US "Predator".

▲The domestically produced Rainbow-4 UAV was unveiled at the 2018 Zhuhai Air Show (Photo source: Phoenix.com)
The Wing Loong family started a little later than the Rainbow series. The Wing Loong-1 was first launched in 2007. It is over 9 meters long and has a wingspan of 14 meters, similar to the American Predator, but with a range of over 4,000 kilometers. The Wing Loong-2, which was launched in 2017, has doubled its performance. The Wing Loong-3, which debuted at the Zhuhai Air Show, has a takeoff weight of over 6 tons and a maximum range of 10,000 kilometers.
Wang Yanan believes that since there is no pilot, drones no longer need the associated display system, life support system and ejection life-saving system, and can focus more on carrying mission payloads. In addition, drones do not have as strict flight speed requirements as ordinary combat aircraft. Therefore, many large drones currently adopt a straight mid-wing and large aspect ratio design, which can achieve a relatively large lift-to-drag ratio and clear obstacles for long-term airborne stays.

Military-Civilian Integration “Breaker”

The Rainbow and Pterosaur soon attracted the world's attention, and international orders poured in. Meanwhile, the Rainbow and Pterosaur aircraft in service in China were also making great progress.

▲The domestically produced Wing Loong-1 UAV exported to Kazakhstan (Photo source: egemen.kz)
In mid-July 2021, many cities in Henan Province were hit by heavy rains and floods. Gongyi City was one of the worst-hit areas. The floods turned the city and farmland into a swamp. The most troublesome thing is that many communication optical cables in the city were cut, and communication base stations were destroyed by floods and mudslides, and the entire city was in a dilemma of communication paralysis. Many victims could not get through by phone and could only passively wait for rescue on the spot.
At the critical moment, some anxious people saw a small black shadow in the distant sky, stubbornly moving through the dark clouds. Soon, people's mobile phone signals began to recover. After knowing the location of the disaster victims, the rescue work was able to proceed smoothly.
The figure that first appeared in the sky over Gongyi was actually the civilian version of the Wing Loong-2 UAV, the Wing Loong-2H UAV. This large civilian UAV used for meteorological detection was equipped with various types of communication equipment and "transformed" into a mobile communication base station. During its five-hour stay in the air, it achieved long-term high-quality mobile signal coverage within 50 square kilometers, providing great help for disaster victims to report disaster situations in a timely manner.

▲The Wing Loong-2 UAV platform has advanced performance, a mature and reliable system, large mounting capacity and good expansion capabilities. It plays an important role in emergency rescue, meteorological observation and other fields (Photo source: Global Times)
On September 5, 2022, Luding County, Sichuan Province suffered a 6.8-magnitude earthquake. The Rainbow-4 UAV rushed to the disaster area to provide assistance as soon as possible. The optical cameras, infrared cameras and other equipment it carried acquired a large amount of key data and information in a complex environment, providing important support for the deployment of earthquake relief work.
"After removing their combat systems, large drones can carry payload packages and airdrop medical supplies and other materials. By attaching communication relay equipment, they can set up air communication base stations in disaster areas. Due to the low requirements for airport facilities, they can even go deep into disaster areas to transport the wounded. The role that large drones can play is far beyond our imagination," said Wang Yanan.
The outstanding performance of "Wing Loong" and "Rainbow" during many disasters has gradually eliminated the boundaries between "military and civilian" large drones.
During this year's Zhuhai Air Show, the world's first four-engine large unmanned aerial vehicle "Twin-Tailed Scorpion-D" developed by my country also attracted much attention.

▲The domestically produced "Double-tailed Scorpion-D" large UAV is preparing for a test flight (Photo source: Xinhuanet)
In addition to its large size and strong loading capacity, its modular design is also a highlight - the design concept similar to building blocks allows the drone to change its body components at any time according to the requirements of different tasks, truly achieving "one machine for multiple uses".
"For large UAVs, platform development that can adapt to different payloads, different scenarios and different mission requirements is the future trend. With the modular concept, the mission configuration of UAVs can be changed faster and easier." Wang Yanan emphasized.