The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) today played down the crash of Rustom-I technology demonstrator, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) being developed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) during its first flight at a private airfield near Hosur in Karnataka yesterday.
The DRDO attributed the mishap to “misjudgement of the altitude of the flight”.
DRDO officials said due to wrong judgement of the altitude of the flight, the engine of the UAV was switched off by the ground command. This brought down the on-board thrust developed in the MALE (Medium Altitude Long Endurance) UAV and it crashed. It, however, remained unclear whether the error was a manual one or lied with the gadgets being used by the ground command to control the UAV.
The ADE, part of the DRDO, is leading the Rs 1,000-crore Rustom programme.
The UAV is expected to have capabilities that will match contemporary UAVs such as the Israeli Heron currently in use by the armed forces. The ADE is using the technology demonstrator as a stepping stone to prove the technologies that will go into the Rustom UAV.
The technology demonstrator is smaller in size than the original but has the same configuration as that of a full-fledged Rustom UAV. It was to undertake around 10 flights to check out taxing, taking off and landing like a conventional airplane but devoid of a pilot. Being smaller than the full-fledged production standard, Rustom has endurance of only 12 to 15 hours, approximately half of what the Rustom is being designed for.
“The taxing and take-off of the UAV was exactly as planned. There are a lot of gains from the flight. The flight proved the functioning of number of systems such as aerodynamics, redundant flight control, engine, redundant data link, etc which go a long way towards development of complex UAVs”, the DRDO said in a statement. It added that it was the first flight of the UAV using a 700-kg airframe and sophisticated controls and hence “prone to development hazards”.
Rustom is being developed by the DRDO for the Army, the Navy and the IAF. It is proposed to supplement the Israeli UAVs in service with the Indian armed forces.
Rustom is proposed to see the enemy territory up to a distance of 250 km and carry a variety of cameras and radar for surveillance.
The DRDO attributed the mishap to “misjudgement of the altitude of the flight”.
DRDO officials said due to wrong judgement of the altitude of the flight, the engine of the UAV was switched off by the ground command. This brought down the on-board thrust developed in the MALE (Medium Altitude Long Endurance) UAV and it crashed. It, however, remained unclear whether the error was a manual one or lied with the gadgets being used by the ground command to control the UAV.
The ADE, part of the DRDO, is leading the Rs 1,000-crore Rustom programme.
The UAV is expected to have capabilities that will match contemporary UAVs such as the Israeli Heron currently in use by the armed forces. The ADE is using the technology demonstrator as a stepping stone to prove the technologies that will go into the Rustom UAV.
The technology demonstrator is smaller in size than the original but has the same configuration as that of a full-fledged Rustom UAV. It was to undertake around 10 flights to check out taxing, taking off and landing like a conventional airplane but devoid of a pilot. Being smaller than the full-fledged production standard, Rustom has endurance of only 12 to 15 hours, approximately half of what the Rustom is being designed for.
“The taxing and take-off of the UAV was exactly as planned. There are a lot of gains from the flight. The flight proved the functioning of number of systems such as aerodynamics, redundant flight control, engine, redundant data link, etc which go a long way towards development of complex UAVs”, the DRDO said in a statement. It added that it was the first flight of the UAV using a 700-kg airframe and sophisticated controls and hence “prone to development hazards”.
Rustom is being developed by the DRDO for the Army, the Navy and the IAF. It is proposed to supplement the Israeli UAVs in service with the Indian armed forces.
Rustom is proposed to see the enemy territory up to a distance of 250 km and carry a variety of cameras and radar for surveillance.
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