Test flight of DRDO’s Rustom-1 UAV successful
18 Oct 2010
Hosur, Bangalore: India's ambitious unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) programme received a major boost when the second flight of the Rustom-1 technology demonstrator UAV was conducted successfully in Bangalore on Saturday. This follows a failed test last year November when faulty operation of the UAV demonstrator had resulted in a crash.
Bothe the tests were conducted at the Taneja Aerospace facility at Hosur near Bangalore. The flight of the second Rustom-1 prototype lasted 30 minutes.
The Rustom-1 is a technology feeder programme for the proposed Rustom-H medium altitude long endurance (MALE) UAV which is yet to fly.
According to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the Rustom-1 is a forerunner of the more advanced Rustom-H and an unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV).
The MALE UAV is being developed by a DRDO lab, the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), a premier DRDO lab specializing in UAVs and flight control systems.
The DRDO said the demonstrator was flown in a manner exactly as planned, up to a height of 3000 ft and remained airborne for 30 minutes and completed all mission requirements. The demonstrator taxied, took off and landed using a runway at an air field owned by Taneja Aerospace, Bangalore, like a normal aircraft with the ground based pilot in full control monitoring every manoeuvre of the aircraft and auto mode remaining on.
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