Turkey’s Baykar Introduces Vertical Landing UAV at TEKNOFEST

Turkish defense giant’s new UAV can take off from small fields, including mobile platforms, engineer says.

Turkey’s leading defense company Baykar unveiled its newly designed vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in the country’s largest technology and aviation event TEKNOFEST.

The new UAV does not need a landing track, it can take off from several different places, including naval or mobile platforms, Burak Ozbek, an air vehicle design engineer at the firm, told Anadolu Agency.

The UAV takes off by using its four electric engines, then it flies with its internal combustion engine, Ozbek explained.

Thanks to its hybrid engine system, the UAV can fly up to 12 hours, the engineer said, adding that its engine can also charge the vehicle’s battery, he added.

Its take-off weight is 50 kilograms (110 pounds) and it can carry 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of useful loads, such as thermal camera, laser designator, or distance meter, Ozbek said.

The UAV, whose wingspan is five meters (16 feet), can take off from a 20×20 meters (66×66 feet) area, he underlined.

“Its operational altitude is 9,000 feet (2,743 meters) but it can fly up to 15,000 feet (4,572 meters),” he said, adding its flying speed is around 40-50 knots.

AA