This is a unique drone, no other country has anything like this.
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LearningTranscript
00:00While I was researching my first video about the Chinese drones, I saw this picture, and
00:06I thought, what the...
00:08Yes, this drone.
00:09This drone attracted my attention, and Otis too.
00:13Otis, what do you think it is?
00:16It is a high altitude long endurance drone, sir.
00:19Yes, of course, look at that wing, but what is it for, it is for electronic intelligence?
00:27No, sir.
00:28So you do know what is that thing?
00:31Yes, sir, it was in the press.
00:40The first rumors about Project 973 Divine Eagle by Shenyang Aircraft Corporation emerged
00:50in 2012 in a book about Chinese aeronautical history.
00:55In May 2015, some pictures and some engineering diagrams were leaked on the Chinese internet.
01:02The configuration shown at the time was not the final one, but it made waves, because,
01:10well, it was big and it was very unusual.
01:14It didn't took long before some clear pictures emerged from behind the Great Chinese Firewall.
01:22First in July 2015, and then in August, leaked pictures were showing the drone parked on
01:28the apron and taxing.
01:31And it was a shock, nobody had ever seen anything like that.
01:37First, it was enormous, we don't have the exact size, but estimates from the pictures
01:43indicate a length between 14.5 and 18 meters and a wingspan between 40 and 50 meters.
01:54The American Global Hawk, as a comparison, has a wingspan of about 39.9 meters.
02:02Unlike the Global Hawk, though, this one doesn't have a fuselage, it has two fuselages.
02:09In fact, the aircraft has two almost identical fuselages.
02:14On the back, they are joined by the central section of the wing.
02:18On the nose, they are joined by an additional aerodynamic surface that I believe is acting
02:23like a classic canard.
02:39It is not clear why this solution was chosen.
02:50Surely the box formed by the two fuselages and the two aerodynamic surfaces is pretty
02:57stiff without requiring too much structural weight.
03:00It is a unique solution and I suspect that the reason it was chosen was not aerodynamic
03:08nor structural.
03:09However, 10 out of 10 for creativity.
03:28The engine is like a turbofan and it is mounted above the wing between the fuselages.
03:35The wing itself has no sweep but it has a very high aspect ratio which is typical of
03:43high efficiency subsonic wings.
03:45The already mentioned Global Hawk has a similar wing.
03:49The U-2 uses the same configuration.
04:05Prominent tail features are the two vertical stabilizers.
04:13They appear to be quite large if they are compared with the overall size of the aircraft
04:19and probably the reason is the very short arm.
04:23This was probably a compromise because they have chosen this very particular general configuration.
04:30So we still have a question to answer.
04:32Why did they choose this configuration?
04:46In the material leaked in 2015 there were pictures of aerodynamic simulations calculated
04:53at 25 000 meters of altitude and mach 0.8.
04:59This actually makes the aircraft mission quite clear.
05:02Intelligence.
05:08The aircraft is painted in green and grey and this means that either there are two different
05:13materials or the Chinese are just fooling us and believing so.
05:18Since the former is much more likely, well, it actually seems that the aircraft is covered
05:26in big radunes.
05:27Well, they're not really domes but yeah, you get it.
05:31The original leak was showing up to seven radar either in X-band or UHF, though the
05:37most recent pictures don't seem to show as many.
05:41This is telling us that the aircraft is probably an AWACS.
05:47An Unmanned High Altitude Very Long Endurance AWACS.
05:52It could have a satellite dish under the left dome for communications and two radars
05:58under the grey areas, probably one for each side.
06:02If other leaks are to be believed, it is possible that under those grey areas there is a modified
06:09version of the Chinese JY-26 radar.
06:13The JY-26 is a rather peculiar radar.
06:17It is a ground-based AESA radar working in UHF band.
06:22These radars operate at low frequency, long wavelengths and they can indeed see stealth
06:30aircraft.
06:31But since there is no free lunch, the quality of the radar track is quite poor.
06:39While the distance measured could be quite precise in the order of a few hundred meters,
06:44the angular precision is low and this means that the detected position at long range could
06:53literally be off by tenths of kilometers.
06:57But this accuracy can be greatly improved by combining different sensors, and this is
07:05probably the mission of the Divine Eagle.
07:08In fact, a fleet of these aircraft could complement the ground-based radars and the more
07:13conventional OWACS, making an airspace very hard to be penetrated even by very low observability
07:21aircraft.
07:22According to some observers, the Divine Eagle entered in limited operational service in
07:272018 and since then it has been observed in several air bases around China.
07:33Unfortunately, we don't know how many are in service, we don't know anything about the
07:37production plans, we don't know anything about upgrades.
07:40Basically, we don't know anything.
07:43Yes, the Divine Eagle is a well-preserved secret.
07:48Sir, we didn't explain the configuration.
07:51Low-frequency radars are large.
07:54The frequency at which they operate forces geometric constraints on the antennas.
08:00But to carry a big antenna there are more conventional solutions.
08:04It could have been like this, or like this.
08:09In the former case, the canoe on top of the fuselage has an adverse effect on the aircraft's
08:16longitudinal stability.
08:18Of course, it can be corrected, and it works pretty well, but it is a further complication.
08:24In the latter option, the position of the wing actually limits the size of the antennas
08:29and anyway, placing them side by side along the fuselage could create interference and
08:35cooling problems.
08:36So, what I believe the Chinese designers did was to create an unimpeded fuselage side where
08:43to host the big radar antenna, and then they split the fuselage in two to have less interference
08:52and better thermal management.
08:55Of course, if you are transforming an already existing civilian aircraft or a transport
09:00aircraft, all these issues can be solved.
09:03They have been many times, but in this case they were starting from scratch, so why bother?
09:09Ah, and now it is obvious why the aircraft doesn't have any stealth feature.
09:14I don't need to explain this, right?
09:16Please let me know in the comments below.
09:18Anyhow, the Divine Eagle is not the only piece of the puzzle that is required to understand
09:25the Chinese drone strategy.
09:28In fact, the Chinese are investing heavily in their drone lineup.
09:32To learn more, please click on the videos that are going to appear beside me.
09:36Thank you very much to all those who are supporting the channel on Patreon by being a member or
09:40making one-off donations through PayPal.
09:43Thank you to all those who buy a model from Air Models, there is an affiliate link below,
09:49I get a small percentage, and there is no extra cost for you.
09:54And if you got to this point in the video, thank you so much for watching, and see you
09:59there!