AVIC delivers 100th Wing Loong series UAV for export market


The producer of China's domestically-developed Wing Loong on Tuesday delivered the 100th unmanned aerial system (UAS) for export, the aircraft maker AVIC said.


AVIC details Wing Loong UAS family future improvement 640 001 AVIC Wing Loong II UAS at Airshow China 2016


The state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) started to export the Wing Loong series of aircraft in 2010. The aircraft has been widely used in anti-terrorist operations, security patrols and aerial detection.

"The aircraft marks the transformation of China's aviation equipment from manned to unmanned, entering the world's high-end drone market," said Tan Ruisong, chairman of AVIC.

The company on Sunday launched the Wing Loong I-D, the latest member of the UAS family. It said the 30-minute maiden flight was successful. The fuselage of new model is completely built with composite material.

The Wing Loong UAS series is developed by the Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute under AVIC in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The Wing Loong family is a high-end reconnaissance-strike drone series independently developed by China, and its serial development is gaining momentum.

The Wing Long I conducted its maiden flight in 2007. And Wing Loong II successfully completed its maiden flight on Feb. 27 last year, showing that China was capable of developing large-scale reconnaissance-strike UAS to international standards.