Shenyang WZ-9 Divine Eagle

For the Chinese turboshaft engine, see AVIC WZ-9.

The WZ-9 Divine Eagle (Chinese: 无侦-9 神雕; pinyin: WúZhēn-jiǔ) is a type of Chinese UAVs developed by Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC),^[1] featuring a twin-boom configuration with a frontal horizontal stabilizer.^[2]

UAV
Role	UAV
National origin	China
Manufacturer	Shenyang Aircraft Corporation
Designer	Shenyang Aircraft Design Institute (601st Institute)
Status	In service
Primary user	China

Divine Eagle

Divine Eagle (Shen-Diao or Shendiao, 神雕) is a little-known jet-powered Chinese UAV under development reportedly since 2012. It was possibly in service as of 2018,^[3] with its existence first revealed in the Chinese military aircraft development genealogy map (中国军用飞机发展族谱图) as a high altitude long endurance (HALE) counter stealth UAV (高空远程反隐身无人机).^[4] It was confirmed by Chinese official sources when the autobiography of aircraft designer academician Li Ming (李明) was published in 2012,^[5] in which it was revealed that the Divine Eagle was designed by the 601st Institute (more commonly known as Shenyang Aircraft Design Institute) of SYAC, originally as a proof of concept aircraft for the development of counter stealth UAV.^[4] A graphic from a Chinese publication showed the employment concept for a large UAV similar to the Shenyang 'Divine Eagle' concept in a multi-platform warning system. Sukhoi's S-62 UAV concept and variations demonstrated in the 2013 Moscow Airshow are similar to the Divine Eagle，and Sukhoi officials noted that China had expressed "great interest" in the Zond designs.^[6] The first confirmed photo of Divine Eagle was revealed in mid 2015 when a photograph of it taxiing was published on the internet.^[7]

Divine Eagle is currently the largest UAV in China (as of 2015), with its length approaching that of Shenyang J-11.^[8] The photo of Divine Eagle taxiing suggests a fuselage height to length ratio of 1:12, giving probable length of 14.4 to 18 meters, and the wingspan is estimated at 40 to 50 meters.^[9] Divine Eagle adopts a unique layout in that it is in twin boom layout with twin tail and what appears to be a low wing configuration. The fuselages have bulbous noses that house satellite communication antennas, and the canard wing is mounted between them, but not at the leading edge.^{[4][7][8][9][10]} A much longer high-aspect ratio wing is mounted aft and an apparent high-bypass turbofan is mounted between two large vertical stabilisers.^{[4][7][8][9][10]} Divine Eagle carries up to seven AESA radars. Its wind tunnel tests were up to an altitude of 25 km and a speed of Mach 0.8.^[11]

Specifications (WZ-9)

Data from Interesting Engineering^[12]

General characteristics

• Crew: None
• Length: 15 m (49 ft 3 in)
• Wingspan: 45 m (147 ft 8 in)
• Powerplant: 1 × Unknown type of jet engine

Performance

• Endurance: 35 hours
• Service ceiling: 25,000 m (82,000 ft)

Avionics

• Large side-looking radars (SLARs)
• Synthetic aperture radar (SAR)
• Moving target indicator (MTI)

See also

• List of unmanned aerial vehicles of China