New Technology Demonstrator UAV Crashes near Hosur

[sudhir007]

An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), on a test flight, hit a coconut tree and crashed in farmland near Hosur in Krishnagiri district of western Tamil Nadu on Monday afternoon.

The remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicle (R-1-1) developed by the defence ministry’s Aeronautical Development Establishment took off from a private airstrip at Belagondapalli village, about 40 km from Bangalore, around 4.5 pm. The UAV was about 3 m long and 1.5 m wide. After hovering over the private airstrip of Taneja Aerospace and Aviation Ltd. for a few minutes, the aircraft, operated by remote control, lost direction and crashed onto an adjacent coconut farm. Luckily, farmer Mariappan, who owned the farmlands, and other labourers on the field had left for lunch. “There was no casualty. Only the aircraft broke into pieces,” said Belagondapalli police inspector Saravanan. No case has been registered as no damage was caused to the farmland.

An official of the private airstrip said the “aerial vehicle” was test-flown for research. The remote control device is said to have developed a snag and that led to the crash.

`NO MAJOR SETBACK’

The UAV was developed by Taneja Aerospace Limited (TAL). DRDO conducts regular trials of UAVs at Kolar and Hosur.

“Trials of the UAV have been going on at Hosur for many days without any technical hitch. On Monday, it crashed but it’s not a major technical problem,” an aerospace expert said.

The UAV was not of the parachute variety, but one with wheels that lands like a normal aircraft. Parachutes help UAVs land by opening up if there is a technical failure. In this case, the UAV crashed as soon as its engine failed.

A UAV flies roughly over a distance of 10 km, scans the entire area and returns to base. Flight control is electronically controlled from a central control room. Trials are undertaken to ensure that UAVs meet their objectives of reaching the said distance, scanning the area and returning to base successfully. Its return is crucial as it carries images of the scanned area.

The trials are normally conducted in open areas so as not to cause any harm. In Kolar too, DRDO has its own area from where it carries out trials.

ALL ABOUT UAV

* Unmanned aircraft flies over pre-determined distances

* Has camera onboard to scan installations

* Electronically controlled

* Usually used by armed forces to spy on enemies

* India has UAV named Nishanth

* DRDO designs UAVs in India

* Development and production undertaken by HAL, Taneja Aerospace

New Technology Demonstrator UAV Crashes near Hosur IDRW.ORG

[arihant]

good to see crash. Because man learn from his mistake.

[rpraveenkum]

gagan UAV.

[haawk]

probable the guy handling the remote....was behind the crash....they say no major set back so that must be it a careless guy handling the remote

[marcos98]

India's Rustom UAV Crashes During First Flight

Bad news. The first technology demonstrator of India's RUSTOM medium altitude long endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) programme crashed during its first test flight on Tuesday, November 16, at the Taneja Aerospace airfield near Hosur in Karnataka. Sources present at the test have told LiveFist that the Rustom took off and flew for a bit. One its return path, it crashed into a grove of coconut trees. The RUSTOM-1 was almost completely destroyed in the mishap. The DRDO statement issued today smacks of a muff-up. "The taxing and take-off was exactly as planned. Due to misjudgment of altitude of the flight, the on-board engine was switched off through ground command which made the on-board thrust developed to go to zero. There are a lot of gains from the flight," the DRDO statement says. Whenever anyone says there have been "gains", and even if it's true, you can bet your last buck that it's been a bad accident (see photo on the left ©The New Indian Express)

It goes on to add, "The flight proved the functioning of a number of systems such as aerodynamics, redundant flight control, engine, redundant data link etc which go a long way towards development of complex UAVs. A lot of planning and care have been taken and notification through relevant authorities were done in order to cater for safety aspects in addition to taking a third party insurance for the flights. It is the first flight of its kind using a 700 kg airframe & sophisticated controls & hence prone to development hazards." The photo to the left shows the late Professor Rustom Behram Damania (after whom the UAV programme is named) demonstrating the Light Canard Research Aircraft (LCRA) to then President KR Narayanan. Prof Damania pioneered the LCRA upon which the Rustom UAV is based, though he is better known for his work on the Hansa light composite trainer.

The crash is an undeniable blow to the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), which was in the midst of pioneering the Rustom, first displayed to the public at Aero India 2009 (see photo at top). Here's hoping the ADE team quickly finds out what went wrong and moves forward. This is a Rs 1,000-crore programme that we cannot afford to have delayed, as it indubitably now will be.

[seiko]

Originally Posted by marcos98

India's Rustom UAV Crashes During First Flight

Bad news. The first technology demonstrator of India's RUSTOM medium altitude long endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) programme crashed during its first test flight on Tuesday, November 16, at the Taneja Aerospace airfield near Hosur in Karnataka. Sources present at the test have told LiveFist that the Rustom took off and flew for a bit. One its return path, it crashed into a grove of coconut trees. The RUSTOM-1 was almost completely destroyed in the mishap. The DRDO statement issued today smacks of a muff-up. "The taxing and take-off was exactly as planned. Due to misjudgment of altitude of the flight, the on-board engine was switched off through ground command which made the on-board thrust developed to go to zero. There are a lot of gains from the flight," the DRDO statement says. Whenever anyone says there have been "gains", and even if it's true, you can bet your last buck that it's been a bad accident (see photo on the left ©The New Indian Express)

It goes on to add, "The flight proved the functioning of a number of systems such as aerodynamics, redundant flight control, engine, redundant data link etc which go a long way towards development of complex UAVs. A lot of planning and care have been taken and notification through relevant authorities were done in order to cater for safety aspects in addition to taking a third party insurance for the flights. It is the first flight of its kind using a 700 kg airframe & sophisticated controls & hence prone to development hazards." The photo to the left shows the late Professor Rustom Behram Damania (after whom the UAV programme is named) demonstrating the Light Canard Research Aircraft (LCRA) to then President KR Narayanan. Prof Damania pioneered the LCRA upon which the Rustom UAV is based, though he is better known for his work on the Hansa light composite trainer.

The crash is an undeniable blow to the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), which was in the midst of pioneering the Rustom, first displayed to the public at Aero India 2009 (see photo at top). Here's hoping the ADE team quickly finds out what went wrong and moves forward. This is a Rs 1,000-crore programme that we cannot afford to have delayed, as it indubitably now will be.

Buddy the picture showing the crashed UAV has no resemblance with RUSTOM..its most likely GAGAN

[sukhoi_30MKI]

Originally Posted by seiko

Buddy the picture showing the crashed UAV has no resemblance with RUSTOM..its most likely GAGAN

you are right buddy it is gagan UAV.
Nice to see DRDO experimenting with wheeled UAV's.

[marcos98]

Originally Posted by seiko

Buddy the picture showing the crashed UAV has no resemblance with RUSTOM..its most likely GAGAN

check out this link....
LiveFist - The Best of Indian Defence: India's Rustom UAV Crashes During First Flight

[seiko]

Originally Posted by marcos98

check out this link....
LiveFist - The Best of Indian Defence: India's Rustom UAV Crashes During First Flight

Thanks for clearing it up mate..When I saw the pic posted by Sudhir i thought it was GAGAN because Rustom is much larger than the UAV in that picture

[arsenal_gooner]

Typical indian technology comes out with a bang

[seiko]

Originally Posted by arsenal_gooner

Typical indian technology comes out with a bang

Well its our (taxpayers) money and we can afford failures

[sukhoi_30MKI]

Originally Posted by marcos98

check out this link....
LiveFist - The Best of Indian Defence: India's Rustom UAV Crashes During First Flight

Buddy the pic is more similar to gagan

[maheshbhat]

I saw the picture of the crashed UAV in a tamil news daily dinakaran. It clearly had Rustom written on its tail. But I am not sure whether it is rustom or gagan.

[jaunty]

Originally Posted by arsenal_gooner

Typical indian technology comes out with a bang

At least we don't paint chinese stuff and call indigenous, we try--we fail--keep trying--successful one day--that's how we even reached moon.

So keep trying your level best at sarcasm--we don't complain coz while u being sarcastic we developing.

[seiko]

Originally Posted by sukhoi_30MKI

Buddy the pic is more similar to gagan

I also feels the same way but the link Marcos give us says its Rustom..