2021-01-06 14:35:14 GMT2021-01-06 22:35:14(Beijing Time) Xinhua English Technicians prepare large UAV, Ganlin-1, meaning sweet rain in Chinese, for its maiden flight at Jinchuan airport in Jinchang City in northwest China s Gansu Province, Jan. 6, 2021. China deployed a large unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on Wednesday for generating artificial precipitation in northwest China s Gansu Province, with an aim of boosting ecological protection. During its maiden voyage, which lasted around 40 minutes, Ganlin-1 maintained stable flight and successfully conducted weather-modification operations, such as atmospheric detection and catalyst spreading to generate precipitation, as well as the de-icing of the UAV itself. This innovative move in ecological protection marks the launch of China s first large UAV-based weather-modification system, filling the country s gap in the field. The UAV is capable of long-range atmospheric sounding, air-data acquisition and catalyst seeding