Unmanned tilt-rotor vertical take-off aircraft unveiled

An unmanned tilt-rotor aircraft developed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) makes a demonstration flight at an aviation center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province, Wednesday. / Courtesy of KARI

By Jung Sung-ki

A state-funded aviation research institute unveiled an unmanned tilt-rotor aircraft Wednesday, making Korea one of the world’s few countries having the technology of vertical take-off and landing plane using helicopter-like rotors at the wingtips.

Currently, only a couple of countries, including the United States, Israel and the United Kingdom, have the tilt-rotor technology or are proceeding with that kind of programs.

The “transformer” unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) aircraft was developed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) affiliated with the Ministry of Knowledge Economy in cooperation with private defense companies, a KARI official said. The UAV project started in 2002.

“Normally a UAV is operated by remote control dozens or hundreds of kilometers away, so a convergence IT technology of data transmission and others is very important,” Park Kyun-je, head of KARI’s smart UAV development team, said after the tilt-rotor’s demonstration flight at an aviation center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province.

“We’ve secured that key technology of our own and that’s so meaningful in this development project,” he said, adding the Korean tilt-rotor aircraft is remote-controlled by 200 kilometers away.

The 5-meter-long, 7-meter-wide aircraft has a top cruise speed of 500 kilometers per hour, according to the researcher. Its fly-by-wire flight control system was developed by the domestic developers while rotor and drive systems were built under an international partnership. About 20 domestic companies participated in the UAV development. Among the major developers are LIG Nex1, Huneed Technologies and Youngpoong Electronics.

The UAV is to be used both for military and civil purposes, such as traffic controls and the prevention of forest fires as well as weather and environmental surveys, according to KARI officials.

Mass production is expected to begin in less than three years after more test trials on collision detection systems and flight speed are completed next March, they said.

The institute is also working on to downsize the aircraft to about 60 percent of its original form to develop a smaller variant dubbed TR-6X.
“The smart UAV can also be used as the platform for a personal air vehicle that is capable of door-to-door operations without a runway,” an official at the ministry said.

UAVs make up the world’s aerospace industry’s most dynamic growth sector, according to reports, as UAV spending is on pace to double during the next decade from current worldwide expenditures of $5.9 billion annually to $11.3 billion, totaling just more than $94 billion.

Experts say the growth in the UAV market will be driven by internal and external security threats, modernization initiatives and territorial disputes.

The United States is the biggest UAV market in the world and will account for 69 percent of procurement over the next decade, according to a March report released by Teal Group, a U.S. based private aerospace and defense research agency.

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