The HH-200, a new, large cargo drone manufactured by Aviation Industry Corporation of China, the country’s leading aircraft manufacturer, has successfully completed its maiden flight, reports the developer. This announcement was published after a prototype of the HH-200 took off from an airport in Weinan, Shaanxi province, and remained airborne for 15 minutes before landing at the airport, the State-owned conglomerate told media.
During the short test flight, all technical systems worked well. The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle completed all programmed flight maneuvers and functioned according to the pre-programmed tasks. After landing, checks showed that the drone was in good shape.
Impressive features
The HH-200 is a type of commercial unmanned cargo plane developed by AVIC Xi’an Aircraft Industry Group. It is the latest freight drone model to have emerged as a result of China’s bourgeoning express delivery industry and thriving e-commerce business.
According to the developers, the HH-200 is 12.2 meters long and 16.8 meters wide, and is able to carry payloads of up to 1.5 metric tons.
The twin-engine model has been designed with a maximum cruising speed of 310 kilometers per hour and a top range of 2,360 km. It has a standard inner space of 12 m³, available for cargo, which can be expanded to 18 m3.
Meng Fantao, technical director of the HH series, emphasized that the HH-200 is designed in accordance with civil aviation standards, featuring intelligent autonomous flight and artificial intelligence-powered obstacle avoidance systems.
User friendly
It is capable of accomplishing up to 50,000 flight hours and 15,000 takeoffs and landings, with a full life-cycle operating cost of 68 U.S. cents per ton-kilometer – just one-third that of manned aircraft with the same uplift capability, the manager stressed.
He revealed another important feature: The drone is very user friendly. Two operators can accomplish the loading or unloading of the aerial vehicle in no more than five minutes, increasing its service time and significantly reducing its downtime.
The drone can take off and land on runways as short as 500 meters and at high-altitude airports above 4,200 meters. It can also withstand extreme temperatures ranging from freezing cold of -40° C to scorching heat of 50° C.
Broad range of applications
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, the manufacturer added.
So far, the HH-200 has secured a total of 20 orders of intent from Chinese companies, and the manufacturer will carry out in-depth cooperation programs with package delivery companies 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.
