Zhejiang's "Low-Altitude Formation" welcomes a new member, the "Tianmu Mountain No. 1" UAV, which made its first flight
2024-08-26
한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina
Chao News Client reporter Ying Tao correspondent Wu Qifan
At 15:00 on August 26, a multi-rotor drone with a wheelbase of 1.6 meters and a take-off weight of nearly 25 kilograms slowly took off, hovered for a few seconds, and then flew steadily over the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Hangzhou International Campus located in the "China Flying Valley", turning on the automatic cruise mode.
The reporter learned that it is named "Tianmushan No. 1" and is the world's first 100-kilometer-class hydrogen-powered long-range multi-rotor drone. This flight is its first flight after the system was optimized and the flight time exceeded the limit of 4 hours.
"Tianmushan No. 1" is a member of the industrial drone family. But its uniqueness is not just its long flight time. In the past six months, "Tianmushan No. 1" has successfully completed challenges in demonstration application tests in multiple extreme scenarios - it has achieved 100 kilometers of continuous operation beyond visual range; completed flight tests in extremely cold conditions of -40℃ with a flight time of more than 100 minutes; and achieved more than 2 hours of simulated flight with load in harsh terrain.
Why can "Tianmu Mountain No. 1" repeatedly challenge the limits and break the limitations of traditional industrial drones? As the chief designer of "Tianmu Mountain No. 1", Xu Weiqiang is proud of this. He told reporters that at present, the commonly used lithium battery drones on the market have a flight time of about half an hour and a flight radius of only a few kilometers, which greatly limits the application scope of industrial drones. The uniqueness of "Tianmu Mountain No. 1" lies in its use of a high-performance airborne hydrogen power system.
The so-called hydrogen power system is actually composed of hydrogen fuel cells and hydrogen storage devices. From a process point of view, the hydrogen storage device provides hydrogen energy, which is directly output as electrical energy after chemical conversion inside the hydrogen fuel cell. However, lithium batteries are secondary batteries, or more accurately, energy storage devices, which need to be charged first to store electrical energy before releasing it.
The essential difference between the two has led to a gap in energy density. The higher the energy density, the stronger the power output. According to public data, the energy density of hydrogen fuel cells is about 5 times that of existing lithium batteries; the energy conversion efficiency has actually reached more than 50%. To put it in a more vivid way, under the same weight conditions, the flight time of a drone equipped with a hydrogen power system is 5 times that of a drone equipped with a lithium battery.
Seizing the advantages of hydrogen fuel cells, since the project was launched in 2022, Xu Weiqiang has led the team to continuously break through the technical challenges of airborne hydrogen power systems with high energy density, high power density, and high and low temperature adaptability, as well as the innovative design of high-performance hydrogen-powered long-flight industrial drones. After multiple rounds of updates and technical verification flights, the "Tianmushan No. 1" completed its maiden flight, which is sufficient to solve the industry pain points of insufficient endurance and low-temperature resistance of industrial drones.
Not only that, "Tianmushan No. 1" is also the world's first mass-produced hydrogen-powered drone with an integrated parachute design. In other words, if an accident occurs during flight, "Tianmushan No. 1" will automatically pop out a parachute to reduce the risk of crashing.
"At present, we have carried out mature test flights in inspection scenarios such as oil and gas, electricity, emergency, forest, and water conservancy. Especially under high altitude, unmanned, and cold conditions, we also believe that the stability of 'Tianmushan No. 1' can play an irreplaceable role." Xu Weiqiang said.
The successful maiden flight of "Tianmu Mountain No. 1" kicked off a series of landmark achievements of Tianmu Mountain Laboratory. Tianmu Mountain Laboratory is an aviation laboratory in Zhejiang Province approved by the People's Government of Zhejiang Province. It is the only high-level platform in Zhejiang Province's "Double Ten" platform that focuses on the aviation field. It is also the most important innovation source to support Zhejiang Province's high-level construction of a strong civil aviation province and the creation of a highland for low-altitude economic development.
Next, the Tianmu Mountain Laboratory will work with the "China Flying Valley" to jointly build an efficient linkage mechanism for industry-university-research cooperation, accelerate the formation of new quality productivity, and help the "low-altitude economy" take off faster.
On the same day, the internal beta version of the IDM-Alpha material vertical field large language model, a representative innovative achievement of the Tianmu Mountain Laboratory, was successfully released, and other Tianmu Mountain series achievements are also being accelerated.
"Please indicate the source when reprinting"
