These exhibits at the Zhuhai Air Show are eye-catching

This year's Zhuhai Air Show is very popular. As an excellent stage for my country's military industry to "show off its muscles", we will also have the opportunity to "take a glimpse" of some things that were "too advanced and not suitable for display" in the past.

This air show has many highlights in the history of Zhuhai Air Show and in the content of exhibits. Among them, robots and drones are the most noteworthy. After new energy, humanoid robots and eVTOL (electric Vertical Take-off and Landing) are two important technologies in my country. At this exhibition, many "black technologies" made their debut, which can be said to be eye-catching and even "the strongest seeding machine".

On October 20, 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Guiding Opinions on the Innovation and Development of Humanoid Robots", further establishing the strategic development status of humanoid robots at the national ministerial level. In the past two years, China has continuously replaced core components with domestic ones, and the development has been extremely rapid.

Robots’ new muscles

Now, the "black technology" on rockets has also been used in humanoid robots. The linear joints developed by the Beijing Precision Electromechanical Control Equipment Research Institute are known as the "new muscles" of robots due to their small size, light weight and high output.

This muscle is quite strong. A "small joint" the size of a cigarette can pull up a 10 kg weight, and a "small joint" the size of a 330ml water cup can easily handle a load of 100 kg, and the movement is accurate. The joints of this product use the "fat reduction and muscle increase" technology of the rocket servo mechanism. By optimizing the internal structure, it is 30% lighter than similar products, but can pull weights 500 to 1,000 times its own weight.

Intelligent Assisted Exoskeleton

The exoskeleton is a real-life version of "Iron Man". The Beijing Institute of Precision Electromechanical Control Equipment also displayed its intelligent knee joint assistive exoskeleton equipment. The product is light, simple and convenient to wear, powered by a portable power supply, and can accurately adapt the output rotation torque according to the wearer's movement, providing an additional 25 kg of flexion and extension power for the knee joint, and the performance indicators and assistance effects of reducing metabolic consumption have reached the international advanced level. 2 The same series of products have the characteristics of high integration, high energy efficiency ratio, high reliability, etc., and can be used in special industries, emergency rescue, medical rehabilitation, outdoor sports and other fields.

The "Robot Wolf Pack" that blew up the screen

At this year's air show, a group of "robot wolves" that look like future soldiers attracted much attention. The "robot wolf pack" unmanned combat system developed by China North Industries Group Corporation is a typical quadruped robot universal platform equipped with different equipment, and with the concept of cluster combat, it enables them to achieve mutual division of labor and cooperation like a real wolf pack.

These "robot wolves" can cooperate in combat within a range of 2 kilometers under the control of the command vehicle, with a flight time of 3 hours. In theory, each "wolf pack" can consist of up to 30 "robot wolves". Taking into account the complex environment characteristics of street fighting, in order to improve the local battlefield situation awareness capability, the "robot wolves" can also cooperate with small drones to realize a new mode of efficient cooperative combat of heterogeneous unmanned clusters.

In addition, quadruped bionic robots are also used in civilian scenarios such as firefighting and rescue, and public security catching fugitives.

The "unkickable" robot dog

In addition to the "robot wolf" carrying weapons, there was still no robot dog in this exhibition. The 21st Institute of China National Nuclear Corporation mainly displayed the "Piaoqi" inspection quadruped robot, lightweight quadruped robot, "Baihong" series hip joint exoskeleton robot products, as well as core products such as motor components and integrated electric joint components, which are some of the most popular robot equipment recently.

my country's drone industry is developing rapidly, and in the past two years, it has invested heavily in low-altitude economic eVTOL.

On November 18, Sun Weiguo, director of the General Aviation Business Department and UAV Working Committee of the China Air Transport Association, revealed at the 2024 International Electric Aviation (Kunshan) Forum that the Central Air Traffic Control Committee will soon carry out eVTOL pilots in six cities. The six pilot cities have been initially determined to be Hefei, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Chengdu, and Chongqing.

A large number of related products were also exhibited at this exhibition.

The first appearance of the "land aircraft carrier"

Xiaopeng Huitian's "land aircraft carrier" made its global debut at this year's air show, performing a dynamic display of the separation of the land body and the flying body, and demonstrating key actions such as "low-altitude straight-line acceleration", "spiral ascent", "extreme-speed dive" and "precise landing".

Zero-Gravity "Quefei" released

Zero-Gravity multi-rotor eVTOL aircraft ZG-ONE airworthy aircraft, "Quefei", was officially released. According to Li Yiheng, founder and CEO of Zero Gravity, "Quefei" has achieved normal flight with a single propeller stopped and smooth landing with both propellers stopped by improving the safety redundancy design of the entire aircraft. At the same time, the aircraft continues the iconic 270° viewing window, the whole aircraft ejection parachute and the efficient 5-minute fast power replacement system. It has lightweight and comfortable interior, real-time ground-to-air intercom and other intelligent functions, bringing passengers a personalized flight experience.

Wofei Changkong signs contract for 120 eVTOL aircraft

The mass production configuration of Wofei Changkong AE200 was unveiled at the exhibition. AE200 is the first self-developed strategic product of Wofei Changkong. It is a 6-seat pure electric manned eVTOL with advantages in safety, economy, comfort, and environmental protection. It has a range of 200 kilometers and will be gradually applied to low-altitude travel, air tourism, emergency rescue and other scenarios in the future.

It is worth mentioning that Wofei Changkong and ICBC Financial Leasing signed a purchase order for the first batch of 120 AE200 aircraft, setting a record for the largest single order for eVTOL products in the domestic aviation financial leasing market.

eVTOL with “three major passes”

EHang Intelligent's EH216-S, the world's first manned eVTOL aircraft with all three airworthiness certificates, made its debut at the air show. The three certificates are type certificate, production license, and standard airworthiness certificate.

Fully tilt-rotor eVTOL unveiled

Huayu Xianxiang publicly displayed the Honghu Mark 1 prototype, the first domestic full-tilt rotor eVTOL aircraft that completed the full-process flight test of the prototype. The full-tilt rotor technology route it adopts can achieve faster flight speed, longer range, lower noise, higher safety and lower cost, which will be more advantageous in future commercial scenarios.

eVTOL with two major technologies

The "Bluebird" eVTOL aircraft, the latest development of Zhuhai Sky Express Co., Ltd., made its debut at the air show. The "Bluebird" electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) can carry one or two people, can take off or land vertically on a small flat ground, and can "hover" or "cruise" in the air. At the same time, its two key systems: the multi-rotor system and the fixed-wing system can be "folded" when parked on the ground, thereby reducing the storage space and making it more convenient for ground transportation.

eVTOL "Made in Chengdu Qingyang"

Sichuan Xunfei Aviation officially debuted at the opening ceremony of the exhibition and released the company's new "Wenyu" eVTOL aircraft. It does not require a runway, can take off and land vertically, and has a maximum design speed of 300 kilometers per hour. The unmanned cargo version of "Wenyu" is planned to be launched in the market in 2 years, and the 4-5-seat manned version is planned to be launched in the market in 5 years.

At this exhibition, "unmanned system" is a key word, and there are many products worth paying attention to.

The "replacement" of the H-20

At this exhibition, the real Rainbow 7 large stealth drone was unveiled at the air show. It is a two-seater J-20S, a medium-sized wingman of the fighter. It has a wingspan of 22 meters, a length of 10 meters, a maximum take-off weight of 13 tons, and a bomb load of 2 tons. It can perform high-risk tasks such as continuous reconnaissance, alert detection, air defense suppression, and combat support. It can also launch or guide weapons to strike high-value targets. The US B21 stealth bomber has a wingspan of about 45.5 meters, a length of about 18.7 meters, a maximum bomb load of 13.6 tons, a maximum range of about 8,000 km, and a combat radius of less than 4,000 km.

my country's largest flexibly configurable multi-purpose heavy-duty UAV

The drone "Jiutian" made its debut at the Zhuhai Air Show. It is a flexibly configurable heavy-duty drone that can be used as a transport aircraft and can also carry missiles and drones.