the different drone between UAV and RC aircraft or toy airplane

Nowadays no matter UAV , rc aircraft,toy airplane,are all called drone by the public , and this make the lines between them becoming more and more blur……

The UAV was first developed after the World War 1 , but it was generally used in military after the World War 2. Recent years , UAV has showed its possibility for commercial and civil use. While DJI becomes more and more popular in UAV area,
the technology of UAV for civil use turn to be more and more mature and common . UAV , rc aircaft and toy airplane can be found in every shopping center. But nowadays no matter UAV , model airplane or toy airplane are all called UAV by the public , and this make the lines between them becoming more and more blur , as a practitioner or a hobbyist can you come out with the different drone between UAV , RC airplane and toy airplane in accurate?

all uav equipments

The differences between UAV and rc aircraft

First , let’s talk about the differences between UAV and rc aircraft.
Let’s start from definition , flight control system , Auto-Control , constituent , purpose and administration to organize the differences between UAV and model airplane , in order to fundamentally distinguish.

The differences of definition

Currently , the definition of rc aircraft is that the model airplane must be in your horizon. People’s horizon should under 500 meters. It means that while people standing here and look at the model , this distance can not exceed 500 meters and the relative height can not exceed 120 meters. It is a kind of unmanned air craft that heavier than air , has limited in size and has or no power plant and should fly in horizon. That is what we call model airplane.
UAV is totally different , it is a kind of unmanned air craft that use radio remote control equipment or its own program to control. It can fly without remote , people can control it through computer , ground station or ground circuit. UAV can fly thousands of kilometers away and now it can stay in air for 48 hours that means 2 days , it can fly so far in that situation. UAV can fly for a long distance , that is also a notable feature of it , which model airplane can not do it.


The differences of flight control system

The only difference is that whether has navigation flight system and whether can autonomous flight. Popular to say , UAV use its complicated central flight control system to connect with ground control parameters , in order to control its stance and maneuvering achieve autonomous flight.
Though model airplane is also unmanned , but it need to fly in manipulator’s horizon and let manipulator to control its maneuvering and regulate its stance.
That’s means UAV flies with its “brain” , the “brain” maybe limited by A.I. , not as smart as human’s brain. But model airplane’s “brain” is always on the ground , in manipulator’s hands.

The differences of Auto-Control

In Auto-Control , UAV can deal with many various situation intelligent , complete the mission as required , confirm the mission after data fusion with the ground station and take the next step as required. While most model airplane’s Auto-Control only can achieve auto return after lose control.

The difference of constituent

UAV is more complicated than model airplane in constituent. Rc aircraft is composed by flying platform , power system and the rocker in horizon. It is mainly for ornamental of the public , pursuit of out looking or elegance of flying , do not need high technology.
UAV’s system is composed by flying platform , power system , Flight control navigation system , link system , mission system and ground station. It is mainly for accomplish some special missions , pursued the ability to complete the task and high technology. Some upscale model airplanes and some low end UAVs do not have too many differences in flying platform , power system.

The differences of use

UAV is more used to carry out some missions that out of horizon , nowadays is mainly used in military and special civil , its biggest mission radius is thousands of kilometers. It can control itself through airborne navigation flight control system. Through link system upload control order and download task information.
Model airplane usually flies in horizon , its control radius is less than 800 meters , manipulator should staring at the plane , use the remote to control the model , there has none equipment on the airplane. Lots of UAV system have the same ability as model airplane , manipulator can control UAV in horizon.

rc aircraft

The differences of Security Management

In our country , rc aircraft is managed by Air Sports Management Center , which belongs to National Sports Commission. Civil UAVs are managed by Civil Aviation Authority and military UAVs are managed by military.

The differences between rc aircraft and toy airplane

The differences of participatory

The differences between model airplane and toy airplane is that toys are “dead” , but models are “alive”. The reason for toys are “dead” is that toys usually only use its original accessories and almost do not have any choices , if it is broken , people can only buy original accessories , it is also difficult to find.

But rc aircraft is totally different , for example if my television is broken , I can buy whatever size of TV as I want , because all of them are in common use , if I think the old one do not have enough power , I can change it into a bigger one in common use. After all , if you buy a toy , it will always look the same. If you buy a model , you can do whatever you want on it.

The differences of internal structure

From the internal structure , toy axis’s ESC , receiver and flight control system are all combined together , all use coreless motor and also do not have the problem of radiating. The advantage for this integrated board is cheap and small in size , the disadvantage is that if one place is broken , then it should be changed into a new one. But because of the expensive cost of model airplane and the need of diy and radiating , so there do not have many integrated board model (except some miniature model craft) , are generally independent devices connected to each other , such as lipo battery, easy to use,and if don’t have electricity,just replace a battery at any time.

The differences of environment

Model usually can fit outdoor fly and it can be controlled in bad weather. But toy can only fly with breeze or without wind such as indoor environment.

Genstattu Author


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