China appears to be testing a massive new stealth drone nearly as wide as America’s B-2 bomber — and its potential capabilities could give Beijing a powerful new tool for spying far beyond its borders.

New images circulating from China appear to show the mysterious flying-wing aircraft, commonly referred to by observers as the WZ-X, airborne near Malan Air Base in the remote Xinjiang region.

The sprawling military facility has been compared to America’s Area 51 because of the highly classified aircraft programs reportedly tested there.

Now, the appearance of the enormous unmanned aircraft is offering one of the clearest glimpses yet at what Beijing may be developing behind closed doors.

Aviation researcher Andreas Rupprecht, who specializes in Chinese military aircraft, has assessed the WZ-X as a likely twin-engine, high-altitude, long-endurance drone designed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.

The aircraft was first spotted in commercial satellite imagery taken in May 2025.

But its sheer size is what makes the new aircraft especially striking.

New photos confirm China’s WZ-X stealth drone has a unique stepped wing design — broad inner sections transitioning to extremely narrow outer wings.

Wingspan is roughly 170 feet, comparable to the B-2 bomber.

Analysts estimate it cruises above 59,000 feet with a range over… pic.twitter.com/Xj8y1lfXP6

— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 5, 2026

The WZ-X is estimated to have a wingspan of roughly 170 to 173 feet — putting it virtually in the same class as the legendary American B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, which has a 172-foot wingspan.

Unlike the nuclear-capable B-2, however, analysts believe the Chinese aircraft’s extremely long wings and relatively compact center section point toward a different mission: staying in the sky for extended periods while quietly gathering intelligence.

And its potential reach could be enormous.

Rupprecht has estimated that the WZ-X could have a range exceeding 12,000 miles and normally operate at altitudes between roughly 59,000 and 66,000 feet.

Those figures have not been confirmed by China’s military.

But if the estimates prove accurate, Beijing could potentially have an unmanned surveillance aircraft capable of traveling extraordinary distances from Chinese territory while operating far above normal commercial air traffic.

Its suspected missions could include tracking warships, monitoring military installations, mapping air-defense networks and relaying targeting information to other Chinese forces.

That could make an aircraft like the WZ-X particularly significant in the Pacific, where American and Chinese forces closely monitor one another’s naval and military movements.

The People’s Liberation Army Air Force has not publicly confirmed the WZ-X’s official designation, manufacturer, mission or performance capabilities.

Its resemblance to America’s secretive RQ-180 reconnaissance aircraft has also attracted attention, although available imagery suggests the Chinese aircraft could be substantially larger.

The WZ-X’s suspected cruising altitude would place it well above most commercial aircraft — and even above the typical operating altitude of the B-2.

Flying at such extreme altitudes can improve endurance because of thinner air, while the aircraft’s stealth-oriented flying-wing design could make it more difficult for radar systems to detect and track.

One major question remains unanswered: Is it armed?

There is currently no confirmation that the WZ-X carries weapons, and analysts have primarily focused on its potential reconnaissance role rather than identifying it as a strike aircraft.

But the aircraft isn’t the only mysterious project emerging from Malan.

The secretive air base has become an increasingly important testing ground for China’s rapidly expanding unmanned aircraft programs.

Satellite imagery has revealed major expansion at the facility in recent years, including new hangars, runways and infrastructure associated with advanced aircraft testing.

Another enormous flying-wing drone has also been spotted at the same base.

That aircraft, sometimes referred to as the GJ-X, reportedly uses a different cranked-kite design and has an estimated wingspan of approximately 137 feet.

The presence of multiple experimental aircraft at Malan has only intensified comparisons to Area 51 — the highly restricted Nevada installation synonymous with some of America’s most secret aviation projects.

Area 51 played a major role in testing Cold War reconnaissance aircraft, including the U-2, years before the facility’s existence was formally acknowledged by the CIA through declassified documents.

China’s newest aircraft remains considerably more mysterious.

Even the WZ-X designation remains unofficial, while its suspected range, altitude and mission are based on analysts’ assessments rather than specifications publicly released by Beijing.

But the newly surfaced images offer another indication that China is actively testing a huge, stealth-oriented unmanned aircraft built around three potentially formidable capabilities: extreme range, extreme altitude and extreme endurance.

If analysts are right about its intended mission, the WZ-X could significantly expand Beijing’s ability to gather intelligence far beyond Chinese territory — and give U.S. military planners another secretive Chinese aircraft program to watch closely.

President Donald Trump’s trip to the Republican Midterm Convention was abruptly delayed Wednesday after an emergency evacuation slide deployed from the new Air Force One, triggering a flurry of activity on the tarmac as the president waited nearby aboard Marine One.

Trump remained inside the presidential helicopter after it landed while crews scrambled to address the unexpected situation involving the Qatari-donated Boeing 747 that recently joined the presidential fleet.

The president later said the delay was connected to a safety check of the aircraft’s evacuation equipment.

‘They were doing a check on the slide. I think it takes 15 minutes,’ Trump told reporters after finally stepping off the helicopter. ‘They wanted to make sure it’s going to work perfectly.’

But the scene on the ground suggested officials were taking no chances.

Marine One reportedly remained sitting on the tarmac with its door closed as crews surrounded the new presidential aircraft.

Then came another striking development: the older, familiar blue-and-white Air Force One was moved from a nearby hangar and positioned just several hundred yards behind the newer aircraft.

Its front and rear stairways were lowered, apparently preparing the backup presidential jet in case Trump needed to abandon plans to fly aboard the newer plane.

Minutes later, an inflatable emergency slide could be seen extending from the right-side forward door of the new Air Force One, opposite the entrance normally used by the president.

The White House did not immediately release a detailed explanation beyond Trump’s comments describing the incident as an inspection of the emergency slide.

The episode is certain to fuel renewed attention on the new presidential aircraft, which has already faced scrutiny surrounding its conversion, security capabilities and readiness for presidential travel.

The Boeing 747-8 was donated by Qatar and rapidly modified for presidential use before entering service earlier this year.

And Wednesday’s incident was not the first time questions surrounding the aircraft have disrupted Trump’s travel.

Trump temporarily stopped using the jet following an unusual incident in Turkey in July, when security officials urged him to leave aboard another aircraft amid heightened concerns connected to tensions with Iran.

During that operation, Trump was discreetly moved away from the Qatari-donated jet using an airport catering vehicle before boarding a smaller military aircraft.

Trump later said the new Air Force One would receive additional upgrades and be “maxed out” before returning to more regular use.

The White House has maintained that the aircraft is safe for presidential travel while acknowledging that additional upgrades and enhancements were planned.

Wednesday’s incident came at a particularly high-profile moment.

Trump was scheduled to travel to Dallas for the Republican Party’s two-day midterm convention, a major national gathering intended to put GOP candidates and the party’s agenda front and center ahead of the November elections.

Instead, the president’s departure was temporarily thrown into uncertainty as crews inspected the new aircraft and positioned the older Air Force One nearby as a potential backup.

Trump eventually emerged from Marine One following the delay, maintaining that the precaution was about ensuring one of the aircraft’s most important emergency systems worked exactly as intended.

Still, the image was impossible to miss: the president waiting aboard Marine One, an emergency slide hanging from America’s newest presidential aircraft, and the old Air Force One being readied just yards away.

Newly obtained internal Justice Department emails are pulling back the curtain on former President Joe Biden’s massive, last-minute clemency blitz — revealing confusion inside the DOJ and an admission that many of the cases were never vetted through the department’s traditional pardon office.

The records show Justice Department officials scrambling to determine exactly what some of Biden’s commutations covered, while also dealing with an erroneous notice involving the pardon of the president’s own son, Hunter Biden.

The emails were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by government watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust and provided to Fox News Digital.

And one admission buried in the correspondence could raise serious new questions about how Biden’s extraordinary wave of clemency decisions was handled.

“Many of the cases that were granted commutation on January 17 were not vetted through our office,” Deputy Pardon Attorney Kira Gillespie wrote.

That office — the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney — traditionally plays a central advisory and review role in presidential clemency cases.

Yet Biden was issuing clemency on a massive scale as his presidency came to an end.

Biden Commutes Nearly 2,500 Sentences At Once

On Jan. 17, 2025, Biden announced that he was commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses.

Federal records ultimately showed the action covered 2,490 people.

Biden said the sweeping move was aimed primarily at prisoners serving sentences significantly longer than they might receive under modern federal sentencing laws, including people affected by the old sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses.

But behind the scenes, DOJ officials apparently didn’t have all the answers.

Internal correspondence shows department personnel were soon trying to determine precisely which sentences Biden had actually commuted.

One case involved Christopher Damon Spencer.

Spencer’s name appeared on Biden’s clemency list in connection with a 2003 criminal case.

But he also had a separate 2011 case carrying a 235-month federal prison sentence.

Prosecutors wanted to know whether Biden’s clemency action applied to that sentence too.

Deputy Pardon Attorney Gillespie responded that applying the commutation to both cases appeared to be the “most sensible reading” of Biden’s action.

Then came the stunning admission.

“Many of the cases that were granted commutation on January 17 were not vetted through our office,” Gillespie wrote.

According to the records, she also indicated that the information available had not undergone the level of review her office would ordinarily seek.

‘Grand Canyon Gap’

Critics seized on the emails as evidence that Biden’s final clemency operation looked considerably different behind closed doors than it did publicly.

“The process didn’t match the public sales pitch,” former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares told Fox News Digital.

“There is a Grand Canyon gap between the public description and the internal reality,” Miyares said.

Protect the Public’s Trust communications director Alexa Moutevelis was even more pointed.

“This paints a troubling picture of a pardon process driven by politics and haste rather than the careful deliberation such extraordinary acts of executive clemency demand,” Moutevelis said.

And according to Moutevelis, the confusion wasn’t limited to obscure cases buried among thousands of names.

It reached all the way to Hunter Biden.

“The Justice Department pardon office’s own emails show the final Biden auto-pen blitz was so clumsy and rushed that the chaos extended even to the most high-profile and controversial of all: his own son, Hunter,” Moutevelis told Fox.

The records cited in the report include officials correcting an erroneous notice connected to Hunter Biden’s pardon.

Autopen Controversy Adds Another Layer

The newly released emails arrive amid a separate controversy surrounding the Biden White House’s use of an autopen.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly challenged the legitimacy of some of Biden’s final pardons, arguing that an autopen was used and questioning whether Biden personally authorized the actions.

Among Biden’s final acts were pardons for members of the January 6 select committee, including former Rep. Liz Cheney.

Trump has alleged those pardons may have been signed using an autopen without Biden’s knowledge.

Those claims remain disputed, and the records described here do not establish that Biden was unaware of the pardons.

But another Trump administration official has made an even more explosive allegation.

Trump AI advisor David Sacks previously claimed that Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren was behind the Biden administration’s use of the autopen.

“Elizabeth Warren controlled the autopen during that administration,” said the Trump advisor, adding that the Massachusetts senator has a “pathological hatred of the crypto community” and wanted to “drive this community offshore.”

Sacks did not provide evidence in the cited interview establishing that Warren actually controlled Biden’s autopen.

Emails Raise New Questions About Biden’s Final Days

Presidents possess extraordinarily broad constitutional authority to grant federal pardons and commutations.

The controversy here is instead about how Biden’s unprecedented wave of clemency decisions was processed and reviewed inside the administration.

And on that question, the internal emails provide a striking glimpse behind the curtain.

DOJ personnel were seeking clarification about individual sentences.

An erroneous notice involving Hunter Biden had to be corrected.

And a senior official inside the Pardon Attorney’s office acknowledged that many of the Jan. 17 commutations had never been vetted through her office at all.

That doesn’t establish that the clemency grants themselves were invalid.