Daocheng Yading Airport, located in Daocheng County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, is the highest civilian airport in the world. Due to the high altitude, both the air density and the atmospheric pressure is low, which has a great impact on the engine power of unmanned helicopters.

　　The high temperature difference between day and night in plateau areas brings high requirements for the parts of unmanned helicopters. The low temperature may cause break of rubber parts, oil and gas leakage, increased viscosity of the lubricating oil, difficult vaporization of fuel, freezing of wings, increase in flying weight, and violent shake of helicopter body.

　　In addition, the complex terrain and weather in plateau areas pose huge challenges to the flight control, flight safety and flight performance of unmanned helicopters.

　　Aiming at the special terrain of plateau, the research team of AVIC Helicopter Design and Research Institute has carried out development of core content such as plateau type engine selection, plateau type rotor system design, new aerodynamic shape reconstruction, and composite fuselage structure design for AR-500C. Thanks to these efforts, the performance of the AR-500C helicopter has been greatly improved on the basis of the prototype.