UAVs
Presided over by President Park Geun-hye, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and the Presidential Advisory Council for Science and Technology presented the industry support strategies for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) at the 22nd National Science and Technology Council Meeting which took place on May 29. Also, they came up with plans to secure advanced technologies on drones within two to three years, and to use tiltrotors, with technology that already stays ahead of other countries, for national defense and disaster monitoring.
The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) is the aeronautics and space agency of South Korea. It has become the world’s second company to localize tiltrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) that are able to take off and land vertically and fly at high speed. Also, it will start full-fledged commercialization from next year. The TR-60, which was co-developed by KARI and Korean Air, is the model to be commercialized. It can fly at speeds of up to 240 kph at altitudes of 4 km. Selected as an industrial engine project by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, it is currently under the preliminary feasibility study for securing budget.
Until now, the tiltrotor UAV has never been commercialized in the global market. Once it succeeds in commercialization, therefore, the agency is expected to dominate the UAV market, which is growing. As Ukraine and Indonesia currently showed considerable interest in the TR-60, it is highly likely to be exported in the future. Since the tiltrotor is able to fly more than twice as fast as a helicopter with higher altitudes, it can monitor, search, reconnoiter, transport, and communicate in large areas.
KARI also developed a double-seater aircraft, which can be both used as manned and unmanned aerial vehicles. It used aviation parts, which was developed by domestic companies. Also, it has a precision flight test system, which enables testing under actual flight conditions, so it is possible to fly precisely and for up to 10 hours. The aircraft can be used as a UAV to monitor disaster in the nation, and be reused through unmanned obsolesence tasks.
It also shows tangible results in the high-altitude endurance electric powered UAV (EAV) sector. The drone can fly in the stratosphere with an altitudes of 12 kilometers for a long time, and perform some tasks of satellites, including real-time precise ground observation and communications. Since it is being paid attention as unmanned aerial vehicle technology for the future, advanced countries are scrambling to compete in its technical development.
Its electricity is powered by a hybrid propulsion system of solar cells, fuel cells, and secondary battery. KARI succeeded in its EAV-2H flying for 25 hours and 40 minutes in 2013. Last year, it also finished its efficiency test to fly at the altitudes of 10 kilometers. This year, the company will conduct the test to fly for 24 hours at the stratosphere using its EAV-3.