Rustom Maiden flight successful at TAAL airstrip in Hosur; DRDO says all parameters met during 30-minute flight

Today, 11 months after a failed attempt (pic 1), DRDO says the Rustom-1 had its successful maiden flight (pic 2) at TAAL private airstrip at Hosur on October 16, 2010. The 21-second flight last year (November 15, 2009) had to be aborted. Here's a gist of Saturday's developments, which has been described as a 'dream flight.'

Duration: 30 minutes.

Parameters: Autonomous Taxi, take-off and landing. All flight parameters met. 

Time: 4.30 pm to 5.30 pm.

Road Ahead: Rustom-H MALE UAV, UCAC

Flown by (Ground control): Col Thappa

DRDO Team at Hosur: Around 60.

The biggies at the event: Dr Prahlada (DRDO CCR&D (Aero & SI), Elangovan (CCR&D), Project Director G. Sreenivasa Murthy, Programme Director G. Natarajan, ADE Director PSK

 Project partners: ADE (Unmmaned missions); DEAL Dehradun (Datalink systems & RF communication to A/c; Zephyr (Pvt firm for airframe).

Project cost: Rs 1,000 crore-plus

History: Rustom is a medium altitude long endurance (MALE) UAV derived fro NAL's Light Canard Research Aircraft (LCRA).

(Detailed story in AW on Monday.)

Note: The blogger is just back to Bangalore after a 15-day tour covering airports and couple of other facilities. Regular updates will begin on Tarmak007 from tomorrow. First up will be Dr Kalam's birthday celebrations in Kerala (Dr Kalam turned 80 on October 15). Also look out for a series on GMR airport Hyderbad, reports on Kochi airport and some insights into DRDO missile programs. Meanwhile, Tarmak007 crossed the 1-lakh hits quitely in a span of just under 7-months. Thanks for your support!