Role & capabilities
- Aerial surveillance
- Modular reconnaissance/strike payloads
- Primary domain
- Air
- System type
- Multirole aircraft
- Developer / manufacturer
- AVIC (Chengdu) UAS
- Origin / production countries
- China
- Other names
- Wing Loong I; 翼龙-1
- Variants / configurations
- Wing Loong-1; Wing Loong-1D; Wing Loong-1E
- Operators / programme customers
- Not identified in reviewed sources
Evidence & current status
Original family export sales are documented by its issuer filing. 1E flight and civil demonstration do not establish military acceptance. Numeric values apply only to explicitly named variants.
Wing Loong-1 is AVIC Chengdu's early medium-altitude multirole drone, developed for export customers. Its manufacturer's 2022 stock-exchange prospectus documents actual overseas sales and distinguishes the original aircraft from Wing Loong-1D. The latter uses a composite structure and has different published dimensions and endurance. Both are separate from Wing Loong-2, already covered elsewhere in the catalogue.
Wing Loong-1E is a further composite-airframe development. An AVIC announcement reproduced in a Chinese embassy science bulletin records its first flight in January 2022. A subsequent government-hosted account describes its participation in a 2023 emergency-response exercise. That provides evidence of flight and civil demonstration, without establishing a particular military customer for 1E.
The specification rows deliberately identify original and 1D figures. They are not a combined maximum-performance aircraft, and they are not transferred to 1E. The manufacturer filing supports the original family's commercial maturity, while customer names are anonymised there. Current operator inventories, export-specific fits and a definitive 1E data sheet remain separate verification tasks.
Sourced specifications
Figures apply to the named configuration. Maximum values are not guaranteed operating performance.
| Specification | Reported value | Context & source |
|---|---|---|
| Airframe | Not established in the reviewed public sources. | Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source |
| Launch / recovery | Not established in the reviewed public sources. | Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source |
| Propulsion | Not established in the reviewed public sources. | Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source |
| Dimensions | Wing Loong-1 wingspan 14 m; 1D 17.6 m | Separate manufacturer configurations in 2022 prospectus; not 1E. Source |
| Mass | Maximum take-off: Wing Loong-1 1,200 kg; 1D 1,600 kg | Separate 2022 supplier figures. Source |
| Endurance | Maximum: Wing Loong-1 24 hours; 1D 35 hours | Separate 2022 supplier figures; payload conditions unspecified. Source |
| Range | Not established in the reviewed public sources. | Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source |
| Speed | Maximum 280 km/h for both original and 1D tables | Not established for 1E. Source |
| Altitude | Maximum: Wing Loong-1 7,000 m; 1D 8,500 m | Separate 2022 supplier figures. Source |
| Payload | Not established in the reviewed public sources. | Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source |
| Sensors | Not established in the reviewed public sources. | Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source |
| Communications / navigation | Not established in the reviewed public sources. | Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source |
Documented milestones
Wing Loong-1E first flight
AVIC's announcement is reproduced in the embassy-hosted science bulletin.
Read the announcement
Publication history
- — Published reference update.
Suggest a correction to this entry
Follow the evidence
Source types identify who makes the claim. Programme milestones and supplier statements should be read in context.