Turkey's indigenous helicopter makes maiden flight

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA

Turkey's first indigenous helicopter T625 made its maiden flight on Thursday in the capital Ankara.

The multirole helicopter has been designed and produced by Turkish Aircraft Industries Corporation (TAI).

"As we promised, the inaugural flight of our T625 helicopter, took place on September 6 thanks to the overachievement of Turkish Aerospace Industries," Turkish Defense Industries (SSB) announced on its official Twitter account.

SSB president Ismail Demir also congratulated people who contributed to the helicopter's design and production process.

Last week, SSB has said that T625's tests were successfully completed on September 2.

"T625 Multirole Helicopter is designed and optimized to meet and exceed the multi-mission requirements for hot and high geographical environments and for adverse weather conditions," TAI said in its website.

The indigenous helicopter project was launched in 2013 by TAI and SSB.

TAI said T625's mass production is expected to begin after 2021.