Our Bureau
New Delhi
India on Saturday successfully carried out maiden flight-trials of a stratospheric airship platform, which is being developed to enhance India’s earth observation and strengthenthe military’s surveillance capabilities.
Developed by Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment at Agra in Uttar Pradesh, the airship was launched from Sheopur Trial site at Madhya Pradesh.
The trials are expected to lead the way for developing high-quality fidelity simulation models for future high-altitude airship flights after receiving data from the onboard sensors.
In a post on X, DRDO said, “DRDO successfully conducts maiden flight trial of Stratospheric Airship with instrumental payload to an altitude of around 17 kms. This lighter than air system will 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.”
Union Minister of Defence, Rajnath Singh has congratulated the DRDO for the successful maiden flight-trial of the system and stated that “it will uniquely enhance India’s earth observation and Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance capabilities.”
Stating technical facts about the successful trials, the Ministry of Defence said, “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.”
Dr Samir V Kamat, Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman DRDO, hailed his team for the design, development and trial, calling prototype flight as a milestone towards realisation of lighter-than-air high-altitude platform systems.
