South Korea's locally developed unmanned tiltrotor aircraft successfully took off and landed on a vessel, the state-run aerospace institute said Tuesday.
The Korea Aerospace Research Institute said the 200-kilogram TR-60 unmanned aerial vehicle successfully completed the maneuver from the flight deck of a Coast Guard cutter sailing at 10 knots last Friday.
(Photo courtesy of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute) (Yonhap)
The TR-60 can be used for surveillance, as well as search and rescue operations at sea.
KARI said the takeoff and landing marks a milestone since UAV operations are notoriously difficult on ships due to wake turbulence caused by the ship's superstructure.
"This trial flight confirmed the possibility of the TR-60's flight from the vessel," said Oh Soo-hoon, a KARI official, adding that the unmanned tiltroter will be further used for other purposes, such as illegal fishing monitoring in South Korean waters.
Currently, only a couple of countries, including the United States and Israel, have effectively mastered tiltrotor technology.
KARI developed the TR-100 UAV in 2012, the second such aircraft in the world after one made by the United States. (Yonhap)