* The HH-200 successfully completed its maiden flight last Wednesday with all aircraft systems functioning normally and the drone completed all planned maneuvers
* It is 12.2m long and 16.8m wide, and is able to carry payloads of up to 1.5 metric tons with its twin-engine model designed with a maximum cruising speed of 310 kilometers per hour and a top range of 2,360km
Maravi Express
People’s Republic of China’s leading aircraft manufacturer, Aviation Industry Corp (AVIC), has built a large cargo transportation drone, the HH-200, which made its successful debut flight on Wednesday.
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According to China Daily and Xinhua News — quoting the State-owned conglomerate’s press release — the HH-200 prototype took off from an airport in Weinan, Shaanxi province and stayed in the air for 15 minutes before landing back at the airport.
The report says during the test flight, all the aircraft’s systems functioned normally and landed back in good condition after completing all planned maneuvers.
The HH-200 is reported to be the latest freight drone model to have emerged as a result of the China’s flourishing express delivery industry and the government’s efforts to make full use of the country’s low-altitude airspace.
According to designers, the HH-200 is 12.2m long and 16.8m wide, and is able to carry payloads of up to 1.5 metric tons — whose twin-engine model has been designed with a maximum cruising speed of 310 kilometers per hour and a top range of 2,360km.
It has a standard inner space of 12 cubic meters available for cargo, which can be expanded to 18 cubic meters, and the report quoted HH series technical director, Meng Fantao, saying the HH-200 is designed in accordance with civil aviation standards, featuring intelligent autonomous flight and artificial intelligence-powered obstacle avoidance systems.
“It boasts a service life of 50,000 flight hours and 15,000 takeoffs and landings, with a full life-cycle operating cost of 4.7 yuan (68 US cents) per ton-kilometer — only one-third that of manned aircraft with the same carrying capacity,” Meng said.
“In addition, the HH-200 adopts a user-friendly configuration for loading and unloading. Two operators can complete cargo loading and unloading in just five minutes.
“The drone can take off and land on runways as short as 500 meters and at high-altitude airports above 4,200 meters, and can withstand extreme temperatures ranging from freezing cold of -40 C to scorching heat of 50 C.”
The Chinese media further quoted the researcher saying “the unmanned transport plane can help to deliver goods to mountainous areas, islands, snowy regions and plateaus”.
“It can be rapidly reconfigured for other applications including emergency rescue, forest fire fighting, weather modification, aerial remote sensing, and agricultural and forestry plant protection.”
According to Meng, the HH-200 has secured a total of 20 orders of intent so far, and the company will carry out in-depth cooperation with express delivery enterprises to jointly promote the commercial application of the HH series of drones.
In addition to the HH-200, AVIC has designed and tested several other cargo drone models, such as the HH-100 and the TP2000.
The HH-200 is thus touted an aircraft with low costs and access to remote regions, and points to a faster, cheaper, pilotless future for cargo.
It features a square, straight-through fuselage, twin-engine high-wing configuration, and twin-boom layout.— reported by China Daily & Xinhua News; edited by Maravi Express
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