| Poison Bee | |
|---|---|
| Role | UAV |
| National origin | China |
| Manufacturer | Beihang University |
| Designer | Beihang University |
| Status | In service |
| Primary user | China |
BUAA Poison Bee (Du-Feng or Dufeng, 毒蜂) is a series of Chinese UAVs developed by Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics UAV Design Research Institute (北京航天航空大学无驾驶飞行器设计研究所) of Beihang University (BUAA). Poison Bee UAVs are mainly intended for reconnaissance missions, and has since entered service with Chinese military and governmental establishments.
Poison Bee I[]
Poison Bee I is the first member of Poison Bee series, and it is an electrically powered, hand-launched UAV in conventional layout with high wing configuration and propulsion is provided by a two-blade propeller driven engine. The entire system of Poision Bee including both the UAV and ground control station is designed to be compact enough to be fit into a single backpack of an ordinary soldier (after the UAV is taken apart). Posion Bee I adopts modular design concept and with different payloads, it can perform aerial reconnaissance, target pinging, electronic jamming and biological/chemical detection missions respectively. Majority of the subsystems of the UAV can be replaced in the field for rapid deployment. Specification:[1]
- Deployment time (min): < 10
- System weight (kg): < 10
- Power plant: electrical motor
Poison Bee II[]
Poison Bee II is the second member of the Poison Bee series UAV developed by BUAA. Unlike earlier Poison Bee I, Posion Bee II different drastically than its predecessor, despite being also designed to be fit into a single backpack of an ordinary soldier and also performing reconnaissance missions. The general designer of Poison Bee II is Mr. Wang Shulong (王书龙). Poison Bee II adopts the same layout of another Chinese UAV, Weiyujie W-1 Sky Hawk: both have cropped delta wing and twin rudders without tailplanes. Like Weiyujie W-1 Sky Hawk, propulsion of Poison Bee II is also provided by a two-blade propeller driven pusher engine mounted at the empennage. The only external visual difference between the two Chinese UAVs are their respective size: Poison Bee II is much larger than Weiyujie W-1 Sky Hawk, even though both are designed to be operated by a single soldier. Despite its larger size, Poison Bee II is designed to be low-cost UAV like the much smaller Weiyujie W-1 Sky Hawk, and this is achieved via by adopting commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) subsystems as much as possible. For example, the cameras carried is derived from civilian market. The first customer of Poison Bee II is a civilian business instead of governmental establishments/military. Poison Bee II adopts modular design concept and can be powered either by electric motor (the original version) or petro engine. Specification:[2]
- Endurance (hr): 1
- Max speed (km/hr): 80 (electrically powered) or 110 (petro powered)
- Cruise speed (km/hr): 65
See also[]
References[]
The original article can be found at BUAA Posion Bee and the edit history here.