Turkey's leading unmanned aerial platform developer Baykar has set its sights high after its armed drone, Bayraktar TB2, successfully completed 200,000 operational flight hours, reaching a milestone as the first home-made aerial vehicle to record such extensive flight time in the country’s aviation history.
"The 1 million flight hour record is next," Selçuk Bayraktar, the chief technology officer of Baykar, said on Twitter.
Bayraktar TB-2 is a medium altitude long endurance (MALE) and a tactical unmanned aerial vehicle capable of conducting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance activities, as well as armed attack missions, according to the company’s website.
The entire system is produced domestically thanks to Baykar's technological experience and capabilities, while Bayraktar TB-2 is also the first-ever aircraft in its category to be exported.
An onboard avionic suite with a triple-redundant avionic system encompasses units, enabling a fully autonomous taxiing, takeoff, landing and cruise.
Since 2014, it has successfully been carrying out missions within the Turkish Armed Forces, gendarme and police.
