Large, unmanned jet makes maiden flight

China, on Thursday, launched the maiden flight of a new type of large, multifunctional unmanned jet that can undertake both civilian and military tasks.

A prototype of the Jiutian, or High Sky, took off on Thursday morning from an airport in Pucheng, Shaanxi province, and made a short flight before landing at the same site.

Engineers tested the drone's overall design and basic flight performance through the flight test, according to the Aviation Industry Corp of China, the nation's dominant aircraft maker.

The Jiutian was designed by the AVIC First Aircraft Institute for Shaanxi Unmanned Equipment Technology, a State-owned aviation enterprise. It was unveiled to the public at the 15th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition that was held in November 2024 in Zhuhai, Guangdong province.

The drone is 16.4 meters long with a wingspan of 25 meters. It has a maximum takeoff weight of 16 metric tons, a top carrying capacity of 6 tons, and a highest operational altitude of 15 kilometers. The jet can fly 12 hours or 7,000 km in a single sortie.

According to AVIC, Jiutian features a modular design that allows it to carry different kinds of mission payloads, including guided bombs, air-to-air missiles, cruise missiles and loitering munitions.

The jet is capable of undertaking heavy-duty cargo transportation and precise delivery in remote mountainous areas and offshore islands, and can quickly restore communications and deliver disaster relief equipment during emergency rescue operations. It is also able to perform a wide range of missions like geographic mapping, disaster assessment, mineral and cultural relic survey, maritime patrol and forest fire suppression.

A key highlight of the Jiutian model lies in its integration of a sophisticated compartmentalized internal bay within its fuselage belly. The unique design enables it to accommodate as many as over 100 loitering munitions or small attack drones, which means the pilotless jet can act as a "mothership of small drones".

Wang Yanan, chief editor of Aerospace Knowledge magazine, said the Jiutian drones can form a fleet to undertake long-range transport or beyond-visual-range strike operations.

"Thanks to its large body and strong carrying capacity, each Jiutian can bring a lot of munitions or equipment to make a long-time patrol beyond the adversary's air defense layers. For instance, it can use advanced radars to detect and track hostile ships and then launch anti-ship cruise missiles to hit the targets. The craft can also launch many small drones as part of a swarm tactic to overwhelm enemy air defenses in future asymmetric warfare scenarios," he said.