Turkish Aerospace is expanding the testing envelope of its internally funded Anka-Aksungur medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (MALE UAV) development with the aim of pushing the air vehicle into series production by the first quarter of 2020, company sources told Jane's .
Turkish Aerospace carried out the first test flight of the Anka-Aksungur medium-altitude long-endurance UAV on 20 March. Source: Turkish Aerospace
The company earlier announced that a prototype of the twin-engine air vehicle had successfully performed its maiden flight - which lasted 4 hours 20 minutes - on 20 March. The air vehicle also demonstrated its automatic take-off and landing capabilities, it added.
Jane's understands that a second test had been conducted on 3 April near Ankara, which had a duration of 3 hours and was aimed at expanding the prototype's flight testing envelope.
The Anka-Aksungur UAV features a twin-boom airframe design supported by a retractable undercarriage and incorporating forward-mounted PD170 twin-turbocharged engines developed by Tusaş Engine Industries (TEI) with input from General Electric, followed by a set of high-mounted wings with slight dihedral and terminating in vertical stabilisers joined by a horizontal tailplane.
Jane's earlier reported that the 2.1 litre, water-cooled inline-4 PD170 engine - equipped with three bladed propellers in a tractor configuration - has a dry weight of 170 kg and can develop and maintain an output of 120hp at up to 30,000 ft (9,144 m) and 170hp at up to 20,000 ft. TEI expects an engine growth potential of up to 210hp with only minor modifications.
The air vehicle also features an overall length and height of 12 m and 3 m, respectively, with a wingspan of 24 m. Each wing is equipped with an integral fuel tank and can accommodate up to three hardpoints. According to the source, this arrangement provides the air vehicle with a maximum take-off weight (MTOW) "in excess" of 3,000 kg and a payload capacity of 750 kg.