75% cost cut: China unveils world’s first fixed-wing drone made of bamboo fibre
Material also holds potential for new energy vehicles, marine equipment, satellites and spacecraft
The research team said the new material could cut a drone’s overall structural costs by more than 20 per cent.
The drone industry typically uses traditional composite materials such as carbon fibre, which require high energy to produce and are difficult to degrade. Bamboo offers a sustainable alternative for designing lightweight, low-cost drones.
The drone was co-developed by the International Centre for Bamboo and Rattan in Beijing, Beihang University’s Ningbo Institute of Technology, and foreign trade firm Long Bamboo Technology Group.
“Bamboo-based composite materials for drones not only need to meet stringent mechanical performance requirements, but also need to overcome a series of technical challenges such as moulding processes and environmental adaptability,” project lead Qin Daochun told Xinhua.
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