The Korea Aerospace Research Institute and Korean Air have signed an agreement to develop the world’s first small-scale unmanned tilt-rotor aircraft by 2013.
The envisioned aircraft, called “TR-6X,” will be about 60 percent the size of the first unmanned aircraft unveiled in November by the state-run aerospace think tank. It flies like a plane but tilts its rotors to take off and land vertically like a helicopter. The government invested 87.2 billion won ($77.7 million) into the project from 2002.
The smaller tilt-rotor will also be able to fly more than five hours at an altitude of 3 kilometers or above with a maximum speed of 250 kilometers per hour.
Under the plan, KARI will transfer related technologies to Korean Air, and the flag carrier will bankroll the programme until June 2013. Terms of the agreement were not revealed.
“The TR-6X will have great versatility as it can be adopted not only for military use but also in a wide range of civil applications,” according to Korean Air.
Source: Press Release