75% cost-cut: China unveils world’s first fixed-wing drone made of bamboo fibre

Chinese researchers said they have developed a drone with wings made from bamboo, making it 20 per cent lighter and considerably cheaper than a carbon fibre device, according to state news agency Xinhua.

The bamboo-based unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which completed its maiden flight in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin last month, costs about a quarter of the price of carbon fibre cloth, it said.

The savings meant that the overall structural costs of a drone made with the new material could be reduced by more than 20 per cent, according to the research team.

The drone industry relies on traditional composite materials such as carbon fibre, which have high energy consumption and are difficult to degrade. Bamboo presents a new way to design lightweight, low-cost drones built with a sustainable material.

The drone was co-developed by the International Centre for Bamboo and Rattan, Beihang University’s Ningbo Institute of Technology and the 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.