Not to be outdone by Airbus’ Zephyr and HAPSMobile’s creations, China has developed its own high altitude solar-powered drone.

Developed by state-owned conglomerate Aviation Industry Corp of China, the Qimingxing 50 (Morning Star 50) took off at 5:50 pm on Saturday from an airport in Yulin in Shaanxi province and remained airborne for 26 minutes before landing, AVIC announced in a news release.

The company added that everything worked well during the trial.

Referred to as a quasi-satellite and propelled by six solar battery powered electric motors, the unmanned drone will be deployed into lower space (about 20-100km of the atmosphere covering the stratosphere, the mesosphere and the lower thermosphere) where it is designed to conduct long-duration operations in near space. Such operations include high-altitude surveillance, forest fire monitoring, atmospheric environmental inspection, aerial mapping, communication signal relay, and other tasks.

It can be also be used for reconnaissance, monitoring, surveying and communications relay missions when satellite services are not available in emergencies – for time-sensitive operations and during conflicts. Additionally, the drone will reportedly help to advance research and development in fields such as new energy, composite material and aeronautical engineering and will improve national operational capabilities in near space and over oceans.

Zhu Shengli, head designer of the Qimingxing 50 said the drone is able to fly at altitudes of up to 20 km and can remain airborne overnight. The solar panels are fixed to its wings which have a combined length of 50 metres.

This is similar to the first Qimingxing prototype drone that AVIC tried way back in 2018, which was designed to stay in the air for months on end. That drone had a wingspan of 20m and was probably made to give stern competition to Airbus’ Zephyr long endurance drone – a solar-powered monster that took the endurance flight record to nearly 26 days at an altitude of 21,300 metres.

The Zephyr has since gone into mass production with annual capacity of about 30 vehicles.

Before AVIC, China’s two main space contractors－China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp and China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp－had developed and built solar-powered drone models capable of operating in near space.

Internationally, a handful of countries, among them the United States and the United Kingdom, have developed solar-powered drones capable of flying as high as 20km.

The record for the highest altitude reached by a solar-powered drone－29.524km－was set in August 2001 by the Helios Prototype, which was developed by the California-based US technology company AeroVironment Inc.

Wu Peixin, an aviation industry observer in Beijing, explained that there are no clouds above altitudes of 20 km and that the winds are stable, so the drone is able to make full use of its solar cells to generate power. As long as the system works, the drone can remain airborne for as long as required.