SINGAPORE/ZHUHAI, China Nov 12 (Reuters) - State-owned

aerospace company AVIC unveiled China's first commercial

uncrewed spaceplane at the country's biggest air show in Zhuhai

on Tuesday, with a mission of supplying the Chinese space

station.

A model of the craft, dubbed Haoloong-1, or Sky Dragon, was

on display at the company's air show exhibition site. Although

the spaceplane is still in development, the company said that it

could further reduce the cost of taking cargo out of the earth's

atmosphere.

State-controlled media outlet China Daily said the craft

brought "a low-cost reusable cargo shuttle solution with Chinese

characteristics to space exploration". The China Manned Space

Agency awarded the spaceplane a contract for engineering flight

verification on Oct. 29, the outlet reported.

Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for

Astrophysics said the project could be a step to gain technology

experience with spaceplanes before building crewed versions.

Spaceplanes, which launch atop a rocket booster into orbit

but return to Earth as a glider and land on a conventional

runway, have long been seen as efficient designs for reusable

spacecraft.

The U.S. Space Shuttle, which was retired in 2011, used a

complex system of heat-dissipating tiles to handle the extreme

friction of reentry at nearly 20 times the speed of sound.

Modern designs can use simpler heatshields with advanced

materials that are lighter and easier to maintain.

The Shuttle carried astronauts and cargo to the

International Space Station (ISS), a role now filled by SpaceX's

Dragon, and Russian Soyuz and Progress capsules. U.S. company

Sierra Space's Dream Chaser spaceplane was recently awarded a

NASA contract to carry cargo to orbit.

China has been flying a military spaceplane for years,

keeping it in space for months at a time. Little is known about

what it is used for, but experts say the ability to deploy and

retrieve objects from orbit - such as small satellites - could

have immense military value.

The U.S. also operates a military spaceplane, the Boeing

X-37B, which has spent years in orbit at altitudes up to

38,000 kilometres.

The first modules of China's space station launched into

orbit in 2021; there have been eight crews sent there so far.

The ISS has been in orbit for 25 years and has been continuously

occupied since 2000.

The air show in Zhuhai runs from Tuesday to Nov. 17.