Baykar tested its Kızılelma unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), and the company’s technical director, Selçuk Bayraktar, announced on Twitter that the second flight test of the Turkish-made unmanned fighter jet was “successfully completed” earlier this week.
The Bayraktar Kızılelma, one of the first unmanned combat drones ever developed, was the result of Turkish-Ukrainian economic cooperation and strategic partnership in science and technology. The UAVs’ unique flight capabilities are provided by Ukrainian-made jet engines from Ukrainian state company “Ivchenko-Progres” in Zaporizhia
Bayraktar #KIZILELMA'mız 2. Uçuş Testi’ni de başarıyla tamamladı.
Ufku açık olsun. ✈️🚀🍎
Bayraktar #KIZILELMA successfully completed its 2nd flight test.
Godspeed. ✈️🚀🍎#MilliTeknolojiHamlesi 🌍🇹🇷 pic.twitter.com/m97VuJrsBh
— Selçuk Bayraktar (@Selcuk) January 23, 2023
The new aircraft was first presented as a project on paper on August 4, 2021, and its first prototype was assembled in less than a year.
Bayraktar Kizilelma is being developed to meet harsher naval conditions for the unmanned jet fighter to take off on both land and sea platforms.
Another game-changing joint Turkish-Ukrainian UAV model under development is the Bayraktar Akıncı heavy attack drone, which also flies on Ukrainian engines. In December 2022, Baykar and fellow Turkish arms manufacturer Roketsan, conducted successful hypersonic missile tests for this particular model of UAV. Bayraktar Akıncı became the world’s first drone capable of carrying, and launching hypersonic missiles.
Selçuk Bayraktar noted that both these advanced aircraft models “open the door to another world” in military aviation.
Baykar announced two-year plans to make its new plant in Ukraine the primary place of production of these new UAV models, with plant design already completed.
