DRDO’s showpiece at Aero India – Aerostat, a surveillance balloon – was not allowed to ‘fly high’ at the show as the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) had denied it permission.
Other than India, only two other countries – the US and Israel – have it. The Aerostat rose to a height of 40 metres only twice at the show (only for half an hour) – once before the defence minister’s visit and once before the mediapersons.
An official from the aerial delivery research & development establishment of Defence Research and Development Organisation said, “We have kept it (the Aerostat) at winch level (ground level) since beginning of the show. We always wanted to keep it flying. But denial of permission by ATC was a dampener.â€
The ATC, however, said it had denied permission as a safety measure as the Aerostat would hamper the movement of flights.
An Aerostat can remain stationary in the air and it is tethered to the ground through an electro-optic wire. An official said while a micro UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) does surveillance work, it can’t fly for a longer time. However, an Aerostat can fly continuously for seven days.
13/02/11 Sameer Ranjan Bakshi/Bangalore Mirror
Posts Tagged 'DRDO'
DRDO’s high dreams dashed
Published February 13, 2011 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: Aerostat, Defence, DRDO
Cruise missile Nirbhay will be ready in 2012
Published February 12, 2011 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: Cruise Missile, Defence, DRDO
Bangalore: The country’s first indigenous subsonic cruise missile, Nirbhay (Fearless), will be ready early next year.
“The integration of the engine is under way. All processes are on for the sub-sonic medium-range cruise missile,†said Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chief VK Saraswat at the air show.
The missile with a range of 1,000km can be launched from multiple launchers. It will arm all the three services.Nirbhay is expected to supplement the BrahMos cruise missile, which has a range of 300km.
About the hypersonic cruise missile, a more advanced version of the BrahMos, Dr Saraswat said it also would be ready by 2012. A successful test of the technology of the missile was carried out in a laboratory in May 2008 at a speed of 6.5 Mach. The hypersonic demonstrator vehicle will attain a level flight, for a ground-to-ground test, at a height of 30 km from the ground, before it hits the target with a speed between seven and eight Mach.
The hypersonic missile BrahMos-2 will be the Mach 8 version of the missile. It will be the country’s first hypersonic cruise missile. It is an advanced version of the present air-launched missile.
DRDO and NPO-Mash are working on a sustained flight scramjet, which will be the core element in the Mark-2 version of BrahMos.
12/02/11 Suman Sharma/Daily News & Analysis
