The 15th Zhuhai International Airshow in 2024 has entered its sixth day today. The official media and self-media have been flooded with reports about the J-20S, J-35A, and Su-57. These three star products account for three-fifths of the stealth fighter jets in the world.
As a person in the sensor field, in addition to paying attention to new fighter jets, missiles, air defense and other various weapons, Brother Gu is more concerned about the situation of sensors in these fighter jets, missiles, military vehicles, warships and other types of weapons.
(The photo was taken at the Farnborough Airshow in London in July this year.)
In addition, Gu happened to participate in the Farnborough Airshow in London, UK in July this year, so I can also briefly compare the Farnborough Airshow in the UK and the Zhuhai Airshow.
First, the scale of the Zhuhai Airshow is larger than that of the Farnborough Airshow in the UK. The number of enterprises and people participating in the exhibition and visiting is more than that in London. Whether it is the indoor exhibition or the outdoor static exhibition, the number of aircraft models participating in the outdoor exhibition is also more than that in London. This is Brother Gu's intuitive feeling, and there is no specific data to confirm it. Of course, no real Chinese aircraft participated in the exhibition. COMAC only exhibited the models of C919 and C929.
Second, the exhibition halls of the Farnborough Airshow in London are all temporarily built on the open lawn beside the military airport. However, various facilities are complete and can be dismantled after the exhibition. It is more economical, and there are no other exhibitions usually. The exhibition halls in Zhuhai are all fixed buildings. If they cannot be fully utilized at other times except during the airshow, it should be a relatively large waste and not economical and environmentally friendly.
Third, the Farnborough Airshow in London mainly exhibits finished aerospace products and related spare parts. Major aircraft manufacturers and engine manufacturers such as Airbus, Boeing, CFM, and Rolls-Royce all have their own independent exhibition halls, and they cover a large area. In the Zhuhai Airshow, no independent company has a very large exhibition hall. Instead, group exhibition halls are set up according to the classification of China's military industry. For example, there are aerospace exhibition halls, weapon exhibition halls, and low-altitude economy unmanned aerial vehicle exhibition halls.
Fourth, the Farnborough Airshow in London is purely an aerospace exhibition, and no other equipment is exhibited. The Zhuhai Airshow seems to have become an aerospace and international defense exhibition. Besides aerospace, it is also a comprehensive exhibition covering various aspects such as military industry, electronics, and shipbuilding. It seems that it should be renamed the Zhuhai International Defense Exhibition to better fit the exhibition content this year.
Fifth, at the Zhuhai Aerospace Exhibition this year, there are a large number of drone models and quantities, including those in service, those in the future, military ones, and civilian ones. In addition, there are also unmanned combat vehicles, unmanned boats, unmanned robot dogs, unmanned robot wolves, and the unmanned "aircraft carrier" codenamed "Nine Heavens" was also exhibited. Although there are also drones at the British Airshow, the number is much smaller. Does it indicate that the development of unmanned equipment such as drones in China is much more advanced than that in Europe?
Sixth, the main exhibitors at the Farnborough Airshow in London are finished aircraft and their components. Among the components, there are more materials and various machined products, while electronic products such as navigation, flight control, and sensors are relatively few. The Zhuhai Airshow is completely different. There are a large number of exhibitors in the fields of navigation, electricity, control, and flight control. Of course, they are mainly Chinese exhibitors, indicating that China's military industry chains in aerospace, aviation, and navigation are relatively complete and rich.
Seventh, the ethnic groups of visitors to the Farnborough Airshow in London seem to be more international. There are whites, blacks, Arabs, and Asians. Judging from their skin colors, accents, and intonations, it seems that people from all five continents of the world are present. At the Zhuhai Airshow in China, besides Chinese people, there are more Arabs, while whites and blacks are relatively few. Maybe it's because there are too many Chinese people, drowning these minority ethnic groups among the numerous exhibitors and visitors.
Eighth, traveling to the Farnborough Airshow in London seems to be more convenient than traveling to the Zhuhai Airshow. Brother Gu took a rented bus from the hotel directly to the free shuttle station and spent a very short time on the double-decker bus. Although there was some traffic on the road, everything was still convenient. However, on the first day of the Zhuhai Airshow, Brother Gu took a taxi from the hotel where he stayed in Hengqin to the P8 shuttle station, which took nearly two hours. Then he transferred to a free bus, and the whole journey took nearly two hours and forty minutes. On the second day, after being recommended by others, he said that it was more convenient to take the urban rail train. That night, he finally managed to grab a second-class ticket without a seat from Hengqin to Zhuhai Airport. It was indeed more convenient than taking a taxi, but it still took more than an hour.
Ninth, in terms of flight performances, the eye-catching flight performances at the Farnborough Airshow in the UK were the F-35 stealth fighter jet and the B-52 bomber of the United States. The flight performances that attracted special attention at the Zhuhai Airshow in China were the flight performances of the J-35 and J-20 of China and the flight performance of the Su-57, the first stealth fighter jet of Russia. Of course, the ribbon-pulling performance of the August 1st Flight Demonstration Team of China and the six-aircraft group and individual stunts performance of the Russian Knights Flight Demonstration Team were also more popular. The flight performances at the Farnborough Airshow in London were much fewer in terms of aircraft models and performance movements than those at the Zhuhai Airshow.
Tenth, in terms of public opening days, the public opening days of the Farnborough Airshow in London are the same as those of the Zhuhai Airshow, both lasting three days. However, on the public opening days of the Zhuhai Airshow, the number of people watching the airshow may be 10 to 20 times that of the Farnborough Airshow in London. If the public outside the venue who did not buy tickets are included, the number may be even more. At the same time, the commercial atmosphere of the Zhuhai Airshow is stronger than that of the aerospace business atmosphere in London. Whether it is the official cultural and creative specialty stores or the badge sales vendors outside the venue, the transactions are very active.
Regarding the relevant situation of the Farnborough Airshow in London in July 2024. If you are interested, you can follow Brother Gu's WeChat public account article and read "Chatting about Sensors in Spare Time during Business Trips and Travels" (121) and (122).
#2024.11.16.22:48 Zhuhai Hengqin Hyatt#
As a professional in the sensor field, Gu is still very concerned about the performance of sensor enterprises at the Zhuhai Aerospace Exhibition or how many sensor enterprises participated in the Zhuhai Aerospace Exhibition.
Does radar count as a sensor? Many experts think that radar may not belong to the category of sensors. In many domestic and foreign speeches, Brother Gu personally believes that in the era of the Internet of Things, radar, Beidou/GPS all belong to the category of sensors or in the future we may not call them sensors but call them sensing devices. In fact, some people, such as in Hong Kong and Taiwan, call sensors detectors or detective devices.
China Electronics/CETC Group exhibited various radar facilities at this Zhuhai Airshow, including fixed radars or mobile radars, single-band radars or multi-band radars. There are radars that can detect several kilometers and also radars that can detect thousands of kilometers. They are the so-called "clairvoyance and clairaudience". On the battlefield, whoever discovers the enemy first has the chance to win. Therefore, the development direction of advanced radar sensors is to detect farther, react faster, and discover targets more precisely.
The autonomous navigation of aircraft is a traditional and modern technology. The most important core device for autonomous navigation is the inertial navigation device, that is, the combination of acceleration sensors and gyroscopes (angular velocity sensors) and precise inertial algorithms. Of course, with the development of GPS or Beidou nowadays, integrated navigation has also become the most important development direction.
China Aviation Science and Technology Group not only brought their various fighter jet achievements but also displayed corresponding multiple sensors. From the simple sensor combination in the nose of an aircraft displayed by AVIC Group, we can see the most basic types of sensors for a normal flight of an aircraft. For fighter jets, many more detection sensors such as millimeter-wave radars and infrared sensors are added.
It should be specially noted that the height measurement of an aircraft is very important. In the nose of an aircraft, there are three combinations for height measurement, including laser height measurement sensors, millimeter-wave height measurement sensors, and traditional radio altimeters. In addition, there is usually also a pressure height measurement sensor.
Infrared sensors and infrared thermal imaging sensors were also exhibited by many companies. In the military industry, infrared thermal imaging sensors have become the most important sensing direction for modern weapons, especially at night.
Shandong Hope-Wish Company brought several types of infrared and infrared thermal imaging sensors to participate in this Zhuhai Airshow. General Liu is also Brother Gu's alumnus. He has been participating in the Zhuhai Airshow for many years and has many application scenarios in infrared sensors and their instrument equipment, with high technical proficiency.
AVIC CAMA Infraredtechnology Co., Ltd., as a national team, has also produced many products and equipment in infrared thermal imaging and infrared sensors.
Nanjing Gova Technology Co., Ltd., also the company of an old friend, General Li, has many application scenarios in aerospace technology and is determined to "be the leader in sensing the world". From pressure, temperature, humidity, inertial navigation to Internet of Things solutions, it has brought a full series of sensor products.
Xiamen Niell Company mainly engages in piezoelectric acceleration and vibration sensors. The high-frequency response characteristic of piezoelectric materials has a large application space in combination with aerospace applications. Gu doesn't know much about this company, but he knows that they are benchmarking against the American Endevco Sensor Company.
As an important global sensor enterprise, TE is not absent from many sensor exhibitions. Many of our high-quality sensors are used in the aerospace industry. I don't know how the direction of their sensor products in China will change after President Trump of the United States took office? What are the expectations after the new president takes office?
Beijing Computer Company, as a relatively large company, also brought their small sensor products. The iris recognition temperature measurement sensor is one of their highlights. But I don't know what kind of gains their well cover sensor with the characteristics of "Xi'an Chinastar M&C" has at this exhibition?
Chengdu Radio Wave Technology Co., Ltd. brought their microwave millimeter-wave phased array radar sensors. This is a special military sensor company that Gu is relatively unfamiliar with. Judging from the name, this technology is still relatively advanced. After all, phased array is a high-tech, which can detect stealth aircraft.
Nowadays, especially as proven on the Ukraine-Russia battlefield, drones have great lethality. How to explore and strike drones has become a new direction. When some people develop "spears", others must develop "shields". Yaofeng Radar Company brought air detection radar sensors specifically targeting "low-flying, slow-flying, and small-sized" drones.
AVIC Taihang Instrument is an important pressure and height sensor company in the aviation field. At the airshow, they brought a company specifically targeting pressure measurement equipment and showed pressure measurement instruments and equipment. I don't know how they planned this Zhuhai Airshow?
Shenzhen Leishen Intelligent System Company and Sichuan Tulin Technology Company both brought their laser gyros and combined inertial navigation systems. Laser gyros should be relatively advanced and have high precision in modern times. If combined with high-performance quartz acceleration sensors and at the same time have their own unique and precise algorithms, very high-precision autonomous inertial devices can be made. I don't know which of these two companies is stronger. Sichuan Tulin Company has started to develop hemispherical gyros.
The above two pictures are the laser gyros, fiber gyros, laser rangefinders, and infrared thermal imagers of China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC). Large state-owned military enterprises in China such as China State Shipbuilding Corporation can not only produce aircraft carriers, destroyers, frigates, etc., but also produce inertial navigation devices for sea ships. The precision requirements of these inertial navigation devices are also high because ships run on the sea for a long time, and the time drift precision of gyros is required to be relatively high.
AVIC Flight Control and Autopilot Institute, that is, Siwei Technology Company under the Xi'an 618 Institute, focuses on aviation pressure sensors, especially based on MEMS SOI technology. The pressure sensor products have been serialized.
Another sensor company founded by AVIC Flight Control and Autopilot Institute, Xi'an Jingwei Sensing Technology Company, focuses on the research and development and manufacturing of inertial sensors. Fiber gyro is their main product. AVIC Flight Control and Autopilot Institute is the main manufacturer of inertial navigation and flight control equipment systems in AVIC.
Xi'an Chinastar M&C Ltd. participated in the Zhuhai Aerospace Exhibition in China for the first time and mainly exhibited their new products, the MCS series high-end pressure sensors, which have been developed in the past ten years. They are mainly targeted at the three major aviation, aerospace, and marine industries. The main characteristics are wide temperature range (working temperature from -75°C to +180°C), high precision (0.1% to 0.02%), and 100% independent intellectual property rights with all domestic raw materials.
At the same time, it also exhibited MEMS technology gyros, acceleration sensors, and inertial measurement units (IMU), attitude and heading reference systems (AHRS), vertical gyros (VG) inertial sensors, which can be applied to various drones and some unmanned equipment.
Gu read the report that Honeywell of the United States and Druck of the United Kingdom also participated in the Zhuhai Airshow and exhibited their corresponding sensor products. However, because there were too many exhibition halls, Gu didn't meet them, so there are no pictures to show.
The maneuverability of the aircraft demonstrated by the flight performance of the August 1st Flight Demonstration Team of China and the beautiful aerial postures make people feel happy and glad for the progress of the country.
When observing the re-entry capsule of Chang'e 6 up close, the weathered surface makes Gu think of the role that sensors play in it.。
When observing the little bit of the moon brought back by Chang'e 6 up close, one will think about how many sensors are on the lunar rover? What are the performance requirements for the sensors? Manned lunar landing will be realized in 2030. It may also be Chang'e 8 or Chang'e 9. What kind of sensors will be needed? What kind of sensor requirements will there be for the lunar landing suit for living on the moon?
#2024.11.17.15:38 Shenzhen Zhongzhou Marriott Hotel#
