Chinese first tonne-level freight drone successfully soared into the skies above Shaanxi Province on Thursday. (Image by China News Service)
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China's national scientific think tank, announced on Thursday that the country's first heavy load unmanned aerial vehicle had completed its maiden flight.
CAS said the test flight lasted for 26 minutes under stable flying conditions and precise trace tracking, meaning it met all original design requirements, people.cn reports.
With a length of 11.84 metres, a wing span of 12.80 metres and a height of 4.04 metres, the drone features a 10-square-metre warehouse capacity which can bear an actual load of 1.5 tonnes.
The vehicle also features an advanced flight control and command system that can initiate both take-off and landing with the press of a button.
Even fully loaded, the AT200 can take off or land using a 200-metre runway and requires no standard airport facilities. It can operate on simply equipped airstrips or even earth slopes and grass lands, so can be utilised in high altitude and mountainous regions.
China is now quickening it efforts to expand the practical usage of drones, with some adapted to conduct artificial rainfall tests last month in Xinjiang, northwest China. (gbtimes)
China's first heavy freight load drone successfully soared to the sky on Thursday. (Image by China News Service)
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