The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully conducted the maiden flight trials of its stratospheric airship platform from the Sheopur trial site in Madhya Pradesh, according to an official statement.
The Defence Ministry said on Saturday “Developed by Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment, Agra, the airship was launched carrying an instrumental payload to an altitude of around 17 km.”
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As per an official release, data from onboard sensors was received and would be utilised for development of high-quality fidelity simulation models for future high-altitude airship flights.
“Envelop pressure control and emergency deflation systems were deployed in flight for their performance evaluation. Trial team recovered the system for further investigation. The total duration of the flight was about 62 minutes,” statement added.
“Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh has congratulated DRDO for the successful maiden flight-trial of the system. He stated that this system will uniquely enhance India’s earth observation and Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance capabilities, making the country one of the few countries in the world having such indigenous capabilities,” the release read.
Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman DRDO Dr Samir V Kamat congratulated the DRDO team involved in design, development and trial of the system. He said the prototype flight is a milestone towards realisation of lighter-than-air high-altitude platform systems that can remain airborne for very long endurance at stratospheric heights.