By Berk Kutay Gokmen
ISTANBUL (AA) - China’s first electric-powered tethered kite balloon for remote sensing monitoring completed its maiden flight on Saturday in Jianping county, northeast China’s Liaoning province, the Global Times reported on Monday, citing the Science and Technology Daily.
Powered by helium buoyancy, the airship can remain airborne for up to 24 hours, providing fire monitoring and assessing power infrastructure, such as transmission line icing, within a 20-kilometer (12.4 miles) radius.
The tethered airship is 32.8 meters (107.2 feet) long and 13.8 meters (45.2 feet) tall, with a volume of 1,818 cubic meters (64,163 cubic feet). It hovers at a stable altitude of around 200 meters (656.2 feet), tethered to a ground winch.
Geng Lina, the technical lead for the project at State Grid Liaoning Electric Power Supply Co, explained that the intelligent airship inspection platform developed by the company has multiple capabilities, including mountain wildfire detection, power line inspection, and atmospheric monitoring.
It has already been integrated with Liaoning’s energy big data system, with relevant technical results achieved.
Together, the airship, ground data system, and data processing platform form an integrated monitoring network that combines remote sensing and multi-source data.
This system enables continuous, all-weather surveillance of power grid infrastructure and supports disaster prevention in the energy sector.