In China they create drones indistinguishable from birds

Flocks of drones, which can not be distinguished from the distant from the pigeons, already fly over the Chinese steppes – and, possibly, over the cities; Dive program is keenly interested in the Chinese military and intelligence services.

The Chinese newspaper South China Morning Post published a report in which it is reported that in at least five provinces of China, military and other law enforcement agencies use camouflaged drones for observation.

Dove is led by Song Bifeng, a professor at the Northwest Polytechnic University of Xi’an in Shaanxi Province. Earlier, Sun Bifeng participated in the development of the Chengdu J-20 fighter; according to the information posted on the university’s website, he already received a state award for participation in the Dove program.

According to Sun Bifeng’s colleague Yang Wenqing, a professor at the School of Aeronautics at Northwestern University of Xi’an and a member of the Dove development team, the technology is already in use, although not yet widely. “Compared to the number of other drones, the number of Dove bird birds is small,” the Wenzin South China Morning Post quoted, “we are confident that this technology has the potential for large-scale use in the future … It has unique properties for which there is a great demand both civilian and military. ”

Dove doves do not just look like birds, they flap their wings and use them for reversals, dives and ascents. Such use of wings meets the main task of developers – to create a drone that can be taken for a bird; according to one of the participants in the program, the drones mimic 90% of the movements of live pigeons and are almost noiseless. They are really difficult to notice and distinguish from pigeons from the ground, and even pigeons themselves were seen in joint flights with unmanned aircraft.

Before using drones for observation, engineers conducted about two thousand test flights. In one test, a flock of drones flew over a flock of sheep in the steppes of Inner Mongolia; the sheep were not afraid of the machines that the Dove program participants regarded as a sign of quality: the sheep were fearful, and if they felt that they were not flying pigeons, they would have fled, an anonymous source familiar with the program explained to the Chinese journalist.