Bayraktar KIZILELMA, Türkiye’s first unmanned fighter aircraft, developed nationally and originally with Baykar’s own capital, successfully performed its first flight.
BAYRAKTAR IN THE KIZILELMA SKY
Bayraktar KIZILELMA, which took off at 14.59 after the necessary pre-flight tests were completed at the AKINCI Flight Training and Test Center in Çorlu, Tekirdağ, successfully completed its first flight at 15.17 and landed. Bayraktar KIZILELMA’s first flight, which lasted for 18 minutes, opened the curtain of a new era in the history of Turkish aviation.
FLY IN ONE YEAR
Bayraktar KIZILELMA project, which Baykar set out with 100% equity capital, started in 2021. Bayraktar KIZILELMA, with the tail number of TC-ÖZB, which came off the production line on November 14, 2022, was transferred to AKINCI Flight Training and Test Center in Çorlu. After the tests that continued for 1 month, the first flight was carried out in a record time of about 1 year since the beginning of the project.
“Our 20 YEARS DREAM”
Addressing the Baykar team after the successful first flight, Baykar Chairman of the Board and Technology Leader Selçuk Bayraktar said: “This has been our dream since we started the fight 20 years ago. The way we started with Bayraktar MINI UAV in 2004 came as far as Bayraktar KIZILELMA. We flew Bayraktar AKINCI for the first time on the same dates in 2019. Today, 3 years after AKINCI, Bayraktar KIZILELMA successfully completed its first flight to complete our failed adventure in aviation and to realize our 20-year dream. KIZILELMA expresses the future of the world in aviation and that we will no longer be followers but playmakers by shaping history.”
“KIZIELMA IS THE SYMBOL OF OUR REBIRTH IN TECHNOLOGY”
Selçuk Bayraktar said, “KIZIL ELMA is a target that gets farther away as it gets closer; and we will work non-stop for further goals. KIZILELMA is the symbol of the rebirth of our civilization in technology. With the self-confidence we have gained here, our country will also achieve great success in civilian technologies. Even if there are efforts to be a wedge, we will never turn from our path and we will work non-stop until we are fully independent in our skies. Thank you to all our colleagues and their families. I commemorate our late father Özdemir Bayraktar and all our friends we lost along the way. If my father had seen this day, I am sure he would have been very happy. I would also like to commemorate my mother Canan Bayraktar here. In addition, I would like to thank our President and our state elders, who have always supported us. I would like to thank our Ministry of National Defense, Turkish Armed Forces, SSB and all the institutions we work with on this path. I would like to express my gratitude to our nation, who did not miss their prayers from us,” he said.
LANDING AND TAKING off SHIPS WITH SHORT-RUNWAYS
Bayraktar KIZILELMA will be a platform that will revolutionize the battlefield with its landing and take-off capability, especially for ships with short runways. Bayraktar KIZILELMA, which has been developed to have the ability to land and take off on short-runway ships such as the TCG Anadolu ship, which Türkiye has built and is currently conducting cruise tests, will play an important role in overseas missions thanks to this capability. With this capability, it will assume a strategic role in the protection of the Blue Homeland.
LOW RADAR VISIBILITY
Bayraktar KIZILELMA will successfully accomplish the most challenging missions thanks to the low radar signature it will obtain from its design. Türkiye’s first unmanned warplane, which is aimed to have a take-off weight of 6 tons, will use all nationally developed ammunition and will be a great power multiplier with a planned 1500 kilogram payload capacity. The unmanned fighter aircraft will also have high situational awareness with the national AESA radar.
BALANCES WILL CHANGE ON THE WAR FIELD
Bayraktar KIZILELMA, which can perform air-air combat like manned warplanes with aggressive maneuvers unlike unmanned aerial vehicles, will also provide effectiveness against air targets with domestic air-air munitions. With these abilities, he will change the balance on the battlefield. It will have a multiplier effect on Türkiye’s deterrence.
EXPORT RECORD WITH 1 BILLION DOLLARS IN 2022
Baykar has earned 75% of its total revenue from exports since the first time it started developing unmanned aerial vehicles about 20 years ago. Baykar, which was announced as the export leader in the defense and aerospace sectors by the Turkish Exporters Assembly in 2021, exported more than 1 billion dollars to 18 different countries in 2022. In addition, 98% of the contracts Baykar signed in 2022 consisted of export agreements. As of 2022, Baykar signed export contracts with 26 countries for Bayraktar TB2 SİHAs and with 5 countries for Bayraktar AKINCI TİHA.
Source baykartech
