Originally appeared at ZeroHedge
Earlier this month, the Chinese unveiled hypersonic weapons and unmanned platforms at a military parade in Beijing on Oct. 1. One piece of military hardware that the People’s Liberation Army, or PLA, didn’t unveil, was an attack helicopter that resembles a flying saucer.
The Super Great White Shark, as what the Global Times is calling the flying spaceship, measures 25 feet long, 10 feet high, and was exhibited at the 5th China Helicopter Exposition in Tianjin, a major port city in northeastern China, late last week.
The Global Times has indicated the saucer “is highly experimental and may not be put into practical use anytime soon.” Still, it added that the saucer could be the country’s future helicopter by 2030.
Chinese ‘#UFO’: #Helicopter dubbed ‘Super Great White Shark’ makes waves at #Tianjin airshow (VIDEO)https://t.co/z5TzlMhqMfpic.twitter.com/Ssb4bx2Vu3
— RT (@RT_com) October 10, 2019
For vertical lift, the saucer uses a coaxial rotor system. Two turbojet engines are embedded on both sides of the aircraft, which give it a tremendous amount of horizontal thrust.
The top speed of the saucer is expected to be around 400 mph. It can climb at a rate of 21.5 feet per second, according to the Global Times, who was citing data from an information sheet at the 5th China Helicopter Exposition.
The saucer has stealth technology built into the exterior skin — this will allow it to go undetected during combat.
Chinese military observers told the Global Times that the saucer’s speed, sleek design, and stealth capabilities give it an edge on the modern battlefield.
The saucer’s maiden flight could occur as early as next year at the China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition in South China’s Guangdong Province, China Central Television reported last Friday.
“Whether or not this particular helicopter can become practical, such explorations are beneficial to China’s technology development for future helicopters,” an anonymous military expert told the Global Times.
Another source told the Global Times that the future of China’s helicopters should include “high speed, intelligence, stealth, and low noise.”
China is racing to modernize its forces, with the latest technology including hypersonic weapons, armed drones, and fifth-generation fighters, amid the threat that the trade war with the US could ultimately end in a shooting conflict somewhere in the South China Sea.
That’s a single prototype tha’s unable to fly, which is why it stayed on the ground at the air show. The US Army experimented with the same design during the 50’s and 60’s to find it could only hover since those would gyrate uncontrollably when the test pilots tried to fly in any direction. The engineers called the gyrations “hubcapping” since it resembled a spinning hubcap (or coin) rolling around on it’s edge before coming to rest.
MAybe not … Remember there has been tremendous technological advances made since the test from U$, in the early 60’s. The AVRO ‘car’ as it ws known, was actually a Canadian craft – ‘stolen’ by the United $nakes, to learn the tech, bbankrolling a competitor in the process. The problem with the AVRO – ‘hubcapping’ as you call it – it the use of a single rotor to supply lift. This can be solved by a counter-rotating rotor, as in the Russian KA-50 attack-helicopter. Even on the utube has there been some videos off such an approach (RC-toys, admitted, but still…)