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TD220 Coaxial Dual-rotor Unmanned Helicopter

At Dubai Airshow 2015, being held until 12 Novembre 2015 at Dubai World Central airport, Zhong-Han-Zhi Science & Technology (ZHZ), part of CATIC is showcasing for the first time its TD220 UAS in the MENA region. The TD220 is a VTOL UAS capable of performing a wide range of missions, such as powerline, forestry and oil-pump monitoring and aerial mapping.

By 2015 the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) TD220, developed by Beijing ZHZ Technology Co, had been widely used in the domestic military and civilian market. The company is also developing another type of unmanned helicopter named T333 which can fly at a speed of up to 300 km per hour. The company, based in Zhongguancun, was founded by two young entrepreneurs. ZHZ’s TD-220 UAV is a typical coaxial rotor VTOL UAV, which max takeoff weight is 290kg, with 80kg of load and 5 hours endurance. The General Administration of Customs has signed a contract with ZHZ Technology Co Ltd. to equip TD-220 in 2015.

TD220 Unmanned Helicopter are Chinese UAVs developed by Zhong Hang - Zhi (ZHZ) Science and Technology Ltd. (ZHZ, catic Beijing Science and Technology co., Ltd.), A total of two ZHZ UAVs have had developed and both are unmanned helicopters. TD220 Unmanned Helicopter is a coaxial unmanned helicopter developed by ZHZ. The indigenously developed coaxial rotors has only half as many components as that of Kamov coaxial rotors, thanks to the replacement of many mechanical parts with electrical components. TD220 only needs a space of 5 m x 5 m to take-off or land.

The vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aircraft vehicle (VTOL UAV) has many advantages such as take off and landing vertically, hovers long time, flight flexible etc. This application technology has been rapidly developed and popularly used in military and civil fields all around the world. In the field of traditional unmanned helicopter of China, the performance is not good as world leading products (such like MQ-8B from Northrop Grumman US and S-100 from Schiebel Austria) due to the limitation of small aircraft engines. The fuel engine powered VTOL UAV are all using gasoline as fuel in China, which doesn’t support running or store on ships due to gasoline’s low flash point (-50°~-20°).

In ordinary understanding, VTOL UAV is generally understood as a vertical take-off and landing of unmanned aerial vehicles. There are two kinds of VTOL UAV from the point of product marketing. One is traditional unmanned helicopter with single rotor and tail rotor (such like AV500 from Aviation Industry Corporation of China, AVIC) or with coaxial rotors (such like TD-220 from Beijing Zhong Hang Zhi Technology, ZHZ). The other one is multi-rotors UAV, which has 4, 6 and 8 rotors (such like DJI Phantom series) mostly.

The implementation of China's marine power strategy causes the increase in marine activities, so it puts forward new requirements for marine management. Marine management mainly includes sea surveillance, supervision, rescue, fishery administration, border inspection, suppress smuggling works, it mainly rely on ship cruising in past years. The max speed of maritime cruising ship is about 18-22 knots (33-40km/h), so for a 100km maritime cruising, it needs about 8-10 hours which include sailing time and task time. It is low efficiency to long distance and large sea area cruising. And also, it is high cost for ship maritime cruising which includes the cost of ship fuel, crew and service etc.

According to General Plan of National Coastal Shipping Route released by MSA China and ships flow information of China’s coastal, and also base on the data of maritime rescue events, the VTOL UAV maritime cruising should cover 150 km off coast, especially 100km off coast. In shore based mode, the VTOL UAV will takeoff from shore station, implement maritime task over sea area, return and land on shore finally. Considering the distance of whole flight route to fit off shore 150 km requirements, the unmanned helicopter should be long endurance and with high cruising speed.

In ship based mode, the VTOL UAV take off from ship, implement maritime task over sea area, return and land on ship finally. The unmanned helicopter of China uses gasoline engine mostly in present, it is dangerous to working and store on ship due to easy cause fire.