Vietnam Successfully Tests first Unmanned Aircraft

After five years of research and designing, Vietnamese scientists have created and successfully tested three prototypes of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the first of its kind in Vietnam.

The tests were conducted at the testing range of the Space Technology Institute in Hoa Lac, Hanoi on Thursday.

Three prototypes are among the five UAVs that have been created by scientists at the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, said Dr Pham Ngoc Lang, who chairs the project entitled “Studies and manufacture of unmanned aerial vehicles for scientific research purposes.”

Scientists began their research in 2008 to create these prototypes and their study became one of the State-level research topics in 2011, Lang said.

These five UAVs include AV.UAV.MS1, AV.UAV.S1, AV.UAV.S2, AV.UAV.S3 and AV.UAV.S4. All of them are manufactured locally, with domestically produced materials.

With their weights ranging from 4 kg to 170 kg and their wingspans from 1.2 to 5 meters, these aircraft can take off on a runway, the top of a car, or a mobile launching platform, or by hand manipulation.

They are equipped with an automated flight system – Autopilot on Board, an advanced camera system, and devices and equipment for scientific research.

Of these aircraft, the smallest (4kg) can fly at 70kph within a radius of 2 km and at a maximum altitude of 200 m.

Meanwhile, the biggest (170 kg) can fly at 180 kph, within a radius of 100 km and at an elevation of 3,000 meters. It can continuously fly for 6 hours in both daytime and nighttime.

The flight ranges of AV.UAV.S3 and AV.UAV.S4 can be extended using guiding satellites or ground control stations.

The two remaining prototypes will be tested in the near future. Currently we are ready to manufacture unmanned aircraft en masse,” Dr Lang said.

[via]