Never seen before! Chengdu Aircraft poster accidentally exposed the Chinese version of the X-47B. Is this the J-20 loyal wingman?

Chengfei Fusion Media’s WeChat official account released a series of mobile wallpapers called “New Year’s Blessings from Fighters”. The wallpapers cover most of the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Company’s flagship products, such as the J-10C fighter, FC-1 Block3 fighter, and especially the J-20 fighter;

In addition, Chengdu Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Two drones of the aircraft company also appeared on the wallpaper, such as the Wugong-2 integrated reconnaissance and attack drone and the Wujian-10 reconnaissance drone that were displayed at this year’s Zhuhai Air Show. In short, they cover the entire range of products. All product lines of Fei.

However, in addition to these two drones, Chengfei Media showed an unprecedented-looking integrated surveillance and combat drone in its last mobile phone wallpaper:

In terms of aerodynamic design, this type of drone adopts a large flying wing and crank kite wing design. In addition to the normal flaps and flaperons, a tail aileron is also added to the tail of the fuselage. The overall aerodynamic design is quite complex. The air inlet is located above the head of the fuselage and adopts a hidden design. The nozzle at the tail of the fuselage optimizes low detectability performance;

From the appearance point of view, this type has no The man-machine is similar to the X-47B, an intelligent UAV technology demonstrator jointly developed by the U.S. Navy and Northrop Grumman, but it seems that the fuselage head line is sharper, and the wingspan, airfoil and shape of the crank kite wing are Technical data such as aspect ratio are also different compared to the X-47B.

The most important thing is that this type of UAV is not within the existing product line of Chengdu Aircraft, nor is it the WuGong-11 UAV that was unveiled at the 70th anniversary of the National Day in 2019. aircraft, so the drone quickly aroused controversy.

Previously announced situation

So, judging from the mobile phone wallpaper released by Chengfei Fusion Media, this mysterious drone that has never been seen means that What? Is it really the model under development by the Chengdu Institute, and can it really represent the development direction of domestic unmanned fighter jets?

Big Ivan thinks it’s really hard to say. Although we have always thought that just a wallpaper or a CG cannot explain anything, but you can still see it when you combine these related situations. Here are some questions.

If Big Ivan remembers correctly, this should be the third or fourth time that Chengdu Institute and Chengdu Aircraft Corporation have displayed such a drone model on different occasions:

The first time should be at the end of 2021. At that time, the aviation industry once released a UAV model with a large flying wing layout. It looked strange and used a crank kite wing similar to the X-47B. At that time, it was mistaken for a model of a new generation stealth strategic bomber, but later it was judged that there was no cockpit on it and it should be a drone;

The second time was around the Zhuhai Air Show in the second half of last year, CCTV In the "Military Technology" column, the Military Channel released a CG imagination video about the two-seat J-20 fighter jet fighting with a "loyal wingman".

Although the CG video cannot be done realistically, and the J-20 "loyal wingman" in the CG video is not the new Attack-11 drone, it can also be confirmed from the side that the aviation industry is indeed There are plans to develop a new generation of unmanned fighter jets, or "loyal wingmen."

Technical Performance of the New UAV

So, how good is this legendary "loyal wingman" and the "crank kite" aerodynamic layout reflected in the picture? Very similar, what kind of tactical performance might this type of drone have, and what might its tactical requirements be?

Big Ivan believes that from the perspective of the tactical needs of unmanned fighter jets, the possibility of using cranked kite wings is relatively high. There are three types of flying wing layouts that have been used in engineering or have been technically verified:

The first is the traditional large flying wing layout used in the B-2 and B-21 strategic bomber projects. The basic feature of this flying wing layout is that the chord length of the fuselage extends straight outward to form a wing section, and the outer wing section The leading edge and trailing edge sweep angles are the same and the sweep angle is smaller, giving the entire aircraft the characteristics of a big wing or a big bat flying in the sky.

In terms of aerodynamic performance, the large flying wing layout is characterized by a large lift-to-drag ratio at subsonic speeds, which is suitable for fighter aircraft to fly at subsonic speeds, but it is difficult to obtain supersonic flight performance. At the same time, due to the short fuselage caused by the large flying wing layout, the design of the fuselage bomb bay is limited. Even large bombers often have a short longitudinal length of the fuselage bomb bay, making it difficult to carry large tactical missiles.

After fully understanding the advantages and disadvantages of the large flying wing layout, a second flying wing layout emerged, which is to lengthen the longitudinal length of the fuselage, shorten the wing span, and use a large rear wing. Arrow-shaped wings with swept-angle aerodynamic layout. For example, the Wuji-8 rocket-powered UAV also exhibited at the Zhuhai Air Show last year has a typical arrow cluster airfoil.

This airfoil makes the entire aircraft resemble an arrow, making it easier to improve the aircraft's supersonic lift-to-drag ratio and improve control efficiency. At the same time, the longer fuselage can accommodate a relatively long bomb bay, and can also Carrying longer air-launched tactical missiles.

But the disadvantage is that the aerodynamic efficiency of the aircraft decreases in the subsonic speed section, and the lift and drag are relatively low. It is only suitable for use as aerodynamics for supersonic UAVs, such as rocket-powered high-altitude and high-speed UAVs such as the Wujian-8. shape.

So, from a performance perspective, it would not be surprising if our new generation of unmanned fighter jets uses a "crank kite" aerodynamic design.

After all, the aerodynamic design of the "Crank Kite" takes into account the advantages of the traditional large flying wing layout and the arrow cluster layout: in terms of lift-drag ratio performance, the "Crank Kite" also takes into account the lift-drag ratio at full speed. , has relatively good performance in subsonic and supersonic speeds;

In terms of the fuselage bomb bay mounting performance, the "crank kite" can accommodate longer missiles due to its longer body length. Air-launched tactical missiles are undoubtedly very valuable for UAVs whose body size is cramped.

Therefore, the US military's X-47B UAV uses a "crank kite" aerodynamic layout. It would not be surprising if our new generation of UAVs also uses the same aerodynamic layout.

The only problem is that the "crank-kite" layout has a different aspect ratio between the fuselage wing section and the main wing section, resulting in a break line on the front of the fuselage. This break line has a certain impact on low detectability performance.

However, low detectability itself is a highly integrated system engineering. In addition to aerodynamic shape, RAM coating (radar absorbing coating), comprehensive thermal management, radio frequency management, etc. are also equally important factors. As long as If the overall low detectability performance meets the relevant requirements, then the "Crank Kite" generally meets the objective needs of the new generation of unmanned fighter jets.

Except for the overall configuration of the "crank kite", the remaining details actually depend on the detailed design.

For example, the shape of the nose, specific selection of sweep angle, wing airfoil, inlet design and tail nozzle design, etc. In this regard, the convergence design with the X-47B is not actually considered It’s strange, but of course it’s normal that the final appearance will be different from what’s reflected in the picture.

Our point of view is still consistent. What is reflected in Chengfei Fusion Media’s mobile phone wallpaper is that we have such a new generation unmanned attack aircraft/fighter project, and the choice of aerodynamic configuration, especially Judging from the existing experience in the United States, the wing surface of a crank kite is relatively large, but this does not mean that the shape of the aircraft will eventually look exactly like the one in the picture.

China’s alternative approach

Finally, there is another detail worth talking about. In fact, it comes from the development of the X-47B UAV by the U.S. Navy and Northrop Grumman. Look, the problem with the X-47B UAV is that the United States has been unable to figure out its artificial intelligence flight control.

This makes the artificial intelligence and autonomous decision-making attacks that are the main design features of this type of UAV become It was difficult to realize, which ultimately resulted in the model never being able to move from the engineering verification machine to the prototype stage.

In contrast, it is obvious that we have taken a different approach. Artificial intelligence for drones is difficult to achieve. Everyone knows this. At present, almost no country can complete research and development and implement engineering applications.

Then let’s find another way. Artificial intelligence can’t handle it, right? I’ll directly use a two-seat fifth-generation fighter jet to command the drone, and the back-seat pilot of the two-seat aircraft will control the drone. Isn’t it solved?

In the field of control, our unmanned fighter jets are obviously better than the United States, which is single-minded and seizes the technological commanding heights but cannot capture it. Of course, we must also seize the technological commanding heights, but in the technological commanding heights, we must seize the technological commanding heights. If we can't get down, we will do the next best thing and use the back seat remote control to ensure that the "loyal wingman" can be technically practical. It is better than not being able to make the technology practical at all. Be okay.

In fact, this kind of "crank kite" wing UAV is not only developed in Chengdu. At least at the Zhuhai Air Show, Aerospace Science and Technology's Aerospace Rainbow UAV was exhibited Rainbow - The full-scale model of the Type 7 UAV adopts this "crank kite" configuration.

With such a picture released by Chengdu, we can only say that the domestic aerospace and aviation departments seem to have reached a consensus on this issue. Since a consensus has been reached, we will Let’s wait for them to come up with products. Let’s look forward to it in 2023.