According to CCTV News,The Rainbow YH-1000S, developed by the 11th Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, successfully made its first flight on February 1. It is the world's first hybrid unmanned transport aircraft.This model is another new model that is rapidly iterating to meet the needs of customers in the global market following the successful first flight of the Rainbow YH-1000 unmanned transport aircraft in May 2025.
The first flight was equipped with a high-power hybrid powertrain jointly developed with a leading new energy vehicle company, which significantly shortened the take-off and landing distance, increased the load and range, and successfully completed the verification of aerial flight performance.
This is also the first important innovative exploration of the cross-border integration of core technologies between the UAV industry and the automotive industry in China. Through in-depth sharing of supply chain resources and modular production, UAV R&D and manufacturing costs have been significantly reduced.
The Rainbow YH-1000S model is a large unmanned transport aircraft designed and developed by the 11th Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation based on airworthiness standards. It can play an important role in international logistics and transportation, emergency rescue and disaster reduction, artificial weather modification, ocean monitoring, maritime supervision and other fields.
It is reported that the previous Rainbow-YH1000 adopted a classic logistics aircraft layout, a dual-engine design, and adopted Rainbow's actual combat-tested avionics equipment, which has strong anti-interference ability and high robustness (Quick Technology Note: refers to the strong ability of systems, equipment or algorithms to maintain stable operation, normal operation and performance without significant degradation in the face of various interferences, uncertainties, abnormal situations or environmental changes).
It has the outstanding advantages of ultra-short take-off and landing and adaptability to harsh take-off and landing environments. It can take off and land on secondary roads, hard dirt roads and grasslands. It is equipped with a pontoon kit for taking off and landing on water, and a sled kit for taking off and landing on snow, expanding the application scenarios of unmanned logistics aircraft.
It has a range of 1,500 kilometers, a mission execution time of 10 hours, a ceiling of up to 8,000 meters, a load capacity of 1,200 kilograms, and can load four sets of 1 cubic meter cargo pallets. The nose can enter and exit cargo, and the belly can place cargo. The six-kilowatt power supply capacity can meet the needs of special operations.