Flocks of drones, indistinguishable from pigeons from afar, are already flying over the Chinese steppes - and possibly over cities; The Dove program has a keen interest in the Chinese military and intelligence agencies.
The South China Morning Post, a Chinese newspaper, reported that in at least five provinces in China, military and other security forces are using drones disguised as birds for surveillance.
The Dove program is led by Song Bifeng, professor at Xi'an Northwestern Polytechnic University in Shaanxi Province. Previously, Song Bifeng participated in the development of the Chengdu J-20 fighter; according to information posted on the university's website, he has already received a state award for participating 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 being applied, although not yet widely. “Compared to the number of other drones, the number of Dove bird drones is small,” Wenqing of the South China Morning Post quotes, “we are confident that this technology has the potential for large-scale use in the future … It has unique properties that are in great demand. both civilians and military men."
Each Dove drone weighs 200 g, has a wingspan of 50 cm and develops a speed of up to 40 km / h; battery charge is enough for half an hour of flight at maximum speed. Each drone has an on-board computer, a camera, a GPS antenna and a satellite communications center, a mechanism that drives the wings, a battery and an electric motor.
Dove drones don't just look like birds, they flap their wings and use them for turns, dives and climbs. This use of wings meets the main task of the developers - to create a drone that can be mistaken for a bird; according to one of the participants in the program, drones mimic 90% of the movements of live pigeons and are practically silent. They are truly difficult to spot and distinguish from ground doves, and even the doves themselves have been spotted flying together with drones.
Before using the drones for surveillance, the engineers conducted about two thousand test flights. In one test, a flock of drones flew over a flock of sheep in the steppe of Inner Mongolia; the sheep were not afraid of the devices, which the Dove program participants regarded as a sign of quality: sheep are fearful, and if they felt that there were no pigeons flying over them, they would scatter, an anonymous source familiar with the program explained to a Chinese journalist.
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