Bayraktar Akinci unmanned combat aerial vehicle flies at altitude of 38,039 feet, stays in air for 25 hours, 46 minutes. Turkey’s Bayraktar Akinci combat drone broke a new record in the country on Thursday by flying at an altitude of 38,039 feet and staying in the air for 25 hours and 46 minutes. During the flight tests in the Akinci Flight Training and Test Center, it traveled 7,507 kilometers (4,660 miles) in air, making 870 sorties during the tests to date and performed a total of 347 hours and 28 minutes of flight.
The Bayraktar Akıncı is a High-Altitude Long-Endurance (HALE) Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) being manufactured by the Turkish technology company Baykar. The unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) was a project spearheaded by the Defense Industries Presidency and took off in the long-haul flight and high-altitude performance test held in the presence of official delegations. With the preliminary design phase completed in June 2019, Akıncı started engine ground run in August 2019 with a Ukrainian turboprop engine Ivchenko-Progress AI-450C.
Akıncı has 881 lb (400 kg) internal and 2,094 lb (950 kg) external payload capacity, combining the overall combat load to max. 2,976 lb (1,350 kg). Powered by two 450 hp (340 kW) or 750 hp (560 kW) turboprop engines, large 66 ft (20 m) wingspan ensures 5.5 tons of maximum takeoff weight. Akıncı will be the first UAV capable of launching an ALCM. The Bayraktar Akinci UCAV made its first flight on Dec. 6 2019. According to the Turkish Presidency of Defense Industries, the first fully operational Akıncı will be delivered to the Turkish Air Force in 2021.
Test activities carried out at the center in the northwestern Corlu Airport Command are conducted with three other prototypes. On 22 April 2021, Bayraktar Akıncı UCAV has successfully conducted its first firing tests. During the test Akıncı was equipped with three different variants of the indigenously developed smart ammunitions, MAM-L, MAM-C and MAM-T. The test has also been the first public appearance of the Roketsan’s newest smart ammunition MAM-T. The first fully operational Akıncı will be delivered to the Turkish Air Force in 2021.
Baykar is a private Turkish defence company specialising in UAVs, C4I and artificial intelligence. Baykar is a portmanteau of the words Bayraktar KardeÅŸler (English: Bayraktar Brothers). The company presently operates under the names “Baykar Savunma” (Baykar Defence) and “Baykar Makina Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Åž.” (Baykar Machine Industry and Trade Inc.).
The company was founded in 1984 as Baykar Makina, a CNC precision machining supplier subcontractor by Özdemir Bayraktar, with the primary goals being production of automotive parts such as engines, pumps and spare parts to ensure the localization of the automotive industry. Established in this direction, Baykar is an engineering company founded with 100% domestic capital. Baykar’s portfolio of advanced UAVs includes Bayraktar Tactical UAS (Bayraktar TB1), Bayraktar TB2 UCAV, Bayraktar Akıncı UCAV. It is also developing a flying car (quadricopter) which it started testing in 2020.
