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India has successfully conducted the flight of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), Nishant with a totally indigenous engine on April 5 in Veerapura in the south Indian state of Karnataka. The Nishant UAV has been jointly designed and developed by National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), a Council of Industrial and Scientific Research (CSIR) lab, Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (VRDE), Ahmednagar and Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), Bangalore.
The highlight of this event was the totally indigenous Wankel engine of the UAV Nishant. The engine weighs about 30 kilograms and is special for its high power-to-weight ratio in single rotor category. The 55 HP can also be used for powering smaller air vehicles, automotive, outboard motors, and also has industrial applications. Sources said that the provisional flight clearance for the first indigenous prototype engine was given by the certifying agency, Regional Centre for Military Airworthiness (RCMA).
A significant milestone in the history of Indian aviation, the indigenous UAV climbed to an altitude of 1.8 kilometers before cruising for a duration of 35 minutes. The vehicle was recovered safely after a total flight duration of 40 minutes. This is the first time a Wankel engine has been developed within India and a UAV has been flown using that engine. This developed technology will be used for future application of UAV’s being developed in ADE.
Nishant is a reconnaissance UAV, which has completed its user trials with the Indian Army and a few of these air vehicles will be handed over to Indian Army very shortly. With an endurance of 4.5 hours and a range of 100 kilometers, Nishant can fly at a height of 12,000 feet. It is a field mobile system comprising air vehicles, ground control station, antenna tracking system, launcher and mission support vehicles. The 360 kilograms vehicle is designed for electronic intelligence and electro-optic reconnaissance and can fly at 40 to 60 meters per second, and can send data in real time. The digital flight control function is backed up by an analog stand-by module.
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