The “ANKA” Unmanned Aerial Vehicle System, developed by Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. (TUSAŞ) and undergoing flight tests since December 30, 2010, completed its acceptance test process with flights on Sunday, January 20, 2013, and Tuesday, January 22, 2013.
The flight, which commenced at 9:05 AM on Sunday morning, was successfully completed with an automated night landing at 3:15 AM on Monday morning, following demonstrations of a 200km link range and 18-hour flight duration. During the range flight, conducted under wind conditions reaching 40-45 knots in the direction of Konya, contact and coordination with Esenboğa Airport were maintained via data link. The flight on Tuesday also demonstrated automated take-off and landing under night conditions.
Since last October, nearly 130 ground and flight test procedures have been successfully completed in the acceptance process, which has been ongoing with the participation of representatives from the Undersecretariat of Defence Industries and the Air Force Command (Hv.KK), and the system has been shown to be ready for duty.
