New box wing UAV

[rickjoe]

Hi huitong, what makes you believe the new box wing uav is a derivative of the soaring dragon?

The two UAVs are very different in size, for instance there is a picture of the xianglong on its main landing gear with people around it. Compare the height of that picture with the picture of the new box wing UAV, and scale it out. Very different dimensions.

Here is a rough diagram using eyeballing individuals heights as a rough common metric:

[Tetrahydrofuran]

We're pretty sure that this is not the same as the Soar Dragon. The wing placement is different, the "head" is different, the height is different, and size is different.

It's possible that this could be an UAV for shorter range operations. Or it could be the Chinese equivalent of the General Atomics Predator-C Avenger.

[huitong]

That's because from what I heard from those reputable VIP members at the Chinese military web sites (say cjdby.net), nobody called it a completely new type of UAV. They all call it Xiang Long 2.0 or the new Xiang Long. The original Xiang Long is thought to be a technology demonstrator only. It may have flown a few years earlier, even though nobody saw the picture, but it looks like it has not gone anywhere beyond that. The connection between the new and old Xiang Long is obvious, same designer and manufacturer, same basic configuration. Some size differences but not huge. The new Xiang Long is just a more refined, more optimized and more mature design. Hope this helps.