The first tonne-class long-distance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) suitable for multiple civil purposes to be built to airworthiness standards in China – Yitong UAV System’s TP200 – completed its maiden flight on Sunday.
According to a Science and Technology Daily report on Monday, the TP200 – designed to handle maritime patrols, island supply and land surveying – can stay in the air for 24 hours at its maximum payload, giving it a range of 3,000km (1,860 miles).
The TP200, developed independently by Yitong, could be used for sea patrols or search and rescue operations near shore. It would also be suitable for keeping watch over coastlines and delivering emergency supplies to remote mountains and islands, it said.
Its flexible, modular design meant the system could be configured to monitor droughts, fight forest and grassland fires, map land or survey forests and ecology – all in any weather, the report added.
According to the company’s website, the TP200 has a service ceiling of about 7,600 metres (25,000 feet) and a maximum cruise speed of 200km/h (124mph). It can take off and land within 300 metres and operate from unpaved runways.
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The fuel‑powered aircraft features two air intakes – one above and one below the rear fuselage – along with a tail propeller and twin connected vertical stabilisers.
The entire supply chain is domestic, with core hardware and software achieving full indigenous technological control. The carbon-fibre composite materials and the portable ground stations are all produced locally, according to the company.
By comparison, China’s military Wing Loong-2 drone offers about 20 hours of endurance under standard load, while the Wing Loong-3 extends that to 40 hours with a payload of roughly 2.3 tonnes.
“The TP200’s development strictly follows civil aviation airworthiness standards,” a company release said.
“Its modular design allows rapid swapping of mission payloads, enabling flexible mode switching for different tasks – a feature that should help push large high-end unmanned aircraft from specialised government applications into the broader civil market.”
At the International Low-Altitude Economy Expo in Shanghai on July 22, Yitong spokesman Liang Long estimated that China would need more than 8,000 large fixed-wing uncrewed transport aircraft over the next 10 to 15 years.
“The low-altitude economy is set to bring about a transformation,” he said, adding that one day China’s freight flight routes would be “as dense as those in the United States”.
