SOURCE: Mumbai Mirror
A prototype of a delta wing remotely piloted aircraft designed and developed by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and the Indian Institute of the Science (IISc) was recently successfully test flown.
This prototype of a delta wing remotely piloted aircraft or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with Micro Jet Engine Propulsion is said to be the first-of-its-kind developed and flight tested in the country. Terming this a defence project, an official said that the project is a joint collaboration between the ADA and the IISc’s Department of Aerospace Engineering.
“This is a defence project where the design for the prototype has come from the ADA, while the mould composition, integration of the airframes, engine, fuel tank along with the testing was done by the Department of Aerospace Engineering’s UAV lab which has a lot of expertise in the developing these kind of aircraft,” an official told BM.
The ADA which is the nodal agency for LCA Tejas is also involved in the design and development of the Autonomous Unmanned Research Aircraft (AURA). The official refused to comment on whether the delta wing remotely piloted aircraft is being developed to carry weapon payloads.
The maiden test flight of the prototype was carried out at the Taneja Aerospace and Aviation Ltd (TAAL) airfield in Hosur. Further giving out details about the flight parameters of the maiden flight, the official said that the aircraft attained a maximum velocity of 190 kmph per hour at 50 per cent throttle, while the take off velocity was 155 kmph and approach velocity was 130 kmph.
“Since this was the first flight we did not want to take much risk with the speed and flew only with 50 per cent throttle. This aircraft is designed for higher speed it can attain a velocity upto 300 kmph,” he said.
During the flight, the aircraft which is powered by Kingtech 140 attained an altitude of 100 metres.
“ To the best of our knowledge, this is the first-of-its-kind indigenous project to be successfully developed and tested in the country. Over the world there are plenty of such aircraft with delta wing configuration especially flown by forces of US and Israel,” the official added.
