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"Wind Blade" unmanned attack aircraft

The Chinese Navy may be equipped with an unmanned aerial vehicle modeled on the RQ-170 in the future, which can assist the anti-ship ballistic missile (DF-21D) to hit the aircraft carrier. In live-fire exercises, the UAV may be used for target recognition and artillery observation, and may provide communication support.

In December 2011, a group of photos was exposed on the China Internet Forum. The photos showed that this is a stealth drone, called the "Wind Blade", which looked similar to the U.S. RQ-170 drone that fell in Iran. Outside of speculation, the value of these pictures is limited. At that time, the direct understanding of the capabilities of the PLA's modern drones and the outlook of the future fleet was still very limited. Copying UAVs in the United States is a common Chinese trend.

Shenyang University has two competitive stealth prototype designs, named "Crossbow" and "Wind Blade", with longer wings. These drones were not designed as naval drones, but they are suitable for naval reconnaissance and positioning missions against aircraft carriers.

The development of China's advanced drones will undoubtedly benefit from the US-made RQ-170 "Sentinel" drone shot down by Iran on December 4, 2011. This UAV is the most advanced UAV stealth technology application in the United States. It was almost certain that Iran will provide China with detailed information about this latest technology. The PLA Navy’s future drones will be more and more capable, and a copy of the RQ-170 stealth drone may help anti-ship ballistic missiles perform strategic operations and track target aircraft carrier groups. But this capability is unlikely to be realized in the near future.

There are rumors that China will eventually have access to the RQ-170 UAV intercepted by Iran. If this happens, China is expected to master a number of key technologies and use them for its own aerospace. The plan includes the development of countermeasures to detect American stealth fighters and drones flying near the Chinese border. Some experts believe that Iran has enough motivation to share RQ-170 with China, no matter from a political point of view, or from a military and economic point of view.

Although Iranian officials once claimed that Iran is capable of cracking RQ-170 technology independently, experts believe that Iran may not have such capability. And allowing Chinese experts to access RQ-170 will obviously also benefit Iran-the latter will be able to obtain more military technology from China, while at the same time gaining China's diplomatic support in confrontations with Western countries due to the nuclear issue.

Since the early 1980s, China has been Iran's reliable weapons supplier. China has provided Iran with a wide range of military technology and equipment, including J-7 light fighters, high-speed patrol boats, and anti-ship missiles. At the same time, China has also provided assistance to Iran's ballistic missile program. Although China’s arms exports to Iran declined from 2000 to 2010 compared to the previous 10 years, China continues to help Iran implement a number of important weapons development programs. Iranian media have reported that both Russian and Chinese officials have made requests for access to U.S. drones.

After China's relationship with the former Soviet Union broke down in 1960, China began to actively use reverse engineering methods to improve its Soviet-made weapons. In addition, China has also been exposed to several types of US-made aircraft and aerospace technology through third countries. The most notable example is China's exposure to the US-made F-16 fighter jets equipped by the Pakistan Air Force. Although it is difficult to make a judgment on the level of Chinese people's understanding of the F-16, through analysis of some public materials, the Chinese are fully able to understand the structure of this US-made fighter jet in detail. And Islamabad may also provide some of the F-16 subsystems to China and guarantee the latter to study the structure of this fighter in detail.

China has made considerable progress in the field of military aviation and has been able to develop very complex aerospace systems. Therefore, China is fully capable of copying RQ-170. For example, a large number of modern metal alloys and composite materials are used in the structure of China's domestically produced J-10 fighter. At the same time, the appearance of the J-20 stealth fighter prototype once again proves that China has the ability to use it in the structure of new aircraft.

Cloud Bow (Yun-Gong or Yungong)

Wind Blade was further developed into Cloud Bow (Yun-Gong or Yungong) experimental UAV, and by this stage the satisfactory result of flight control system of the flying wing design has been achieved, so the winglets on earlier Wind Blade were eliminated, and hence Cloud Bow is also said ot be called 4 control surfaces flying wing (si duo-mian fei-yi), though there is no evident Chinese attestation of this nomenclature.

A mechanically or manually operated flight control system is the most basic method of controlling an aircraft. They were used in early airplanes and are currently used in small airplanes that are not excessively aerodynamic. Early aircraft, such as Wright Flyer I, Blériot XI and Fokker Eindecker, all used wing warping systems. Traditional articulated control surfaces were not used on the wings, and sometimes they were not even used for pitch control. The complexity and weight of mechanical flight control systems increase significantly with the size and performance of the aircraft. Hydraulic control surfaces help overcome these limitations.