Turkey's new UAV engine debuts at TEKNOFEST

ISTANBUL

TUSAS Engine Industries (TEI) showcased Turkey's new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) engine Wednesday for the first time at the country’s largest technology and aviation event, TEKNOFEST.

The PD222ST engine is five kilograms lighter and 55 hp more powerful than Turkey's first domestic and national aviation turbodiesel engine TEI-PD170 used in unmanned aerial vehicles.

In an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency, TEI General Manager and Chairman of the Board Mahmut Faruk Aksit said the PD170 was developed for the needs of Anka-S UAVs.

Noting that the first Anka flew with a 155-hp imported engine and there were some problems with supply, Aksit said that as a result, they started working on the PD170.

Underlining that using a design by Turkish engineers and the production of Turkish technicians, they have developed the world's highest altitude in its class least fuel-consuming engine so that it can operate comfortably up to 40,000 feet, Aksit pointed out that competing products are generally designed to operate around 25,000 feet.

He said that after developing the main engine structure, they started producing derivative engines for other needs by keeping the mainframe of this engine the same.

"This is how we developed the PD222ST. There will be different versions of it as well. ‘ST’ means ‘single turbo.’ It is a single turbo version.”

-More than 60 PD170s produced

Aksit said they continued mass production of the PD170 in addition to their development work.

"The engines we produced in total exceeded 60,” he added.

Noting that they exhibited the first prototype of the PD222ST at TEKNOFEST, he said the engine was subjected to serious tests and maturation processes continue.

"It needs a period of a year to go into mass production. In the next year, we aim to announce that this too has flown and entered mass production."

TEKNOFEST kicked off in Istanbul on Tuesday.

The six-day event at Ataturk Airport, organized by the Turkish Technology Team Foundation (T3 Foundation) and Turkey's Industry and Technology Ministry, is held in various Turkish cities in even years and the metropolis of Istanbul in odd years.

Last year, the event was organized virtually in Gaziantep province due to coronavirus pandemic measures.

In 2019, some 1.72 million people visited the event in Istanbul.

Anadolu Agency has been the global communication partner of the event since 2018.

*Writing by Seda Sevencan