Korea Accelerates Commercialization of UAVs Tiltrotors

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The government of South Korea prepared a plan that is aimed at acquiring advanced technologies on drones within two to three years, and to use Tilt-Rotors, with technology that already stays ahead of other countries, for national defense and disaster monitoring.

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) is the aeronautics and space agency of South Korea. It has become the world’s second company to localize Tilt-Rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) that are able to take off and land vertically and fly at high speed. Also, it will start full-fledged commercialization from next year. The TR-60, which was co-developed by KARI and Korean Air, the national flight company, is the model to be commercialized. It can fly at speeds of up to 240 kph at altitudes of 4 km. Selected as an industrial engine project by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, it is currently under the preliminary feasibility study for securing budget.

According to Business Korea, until now, the Tilt-Rotor UAV has never been commercialized in the global market. Once it succeeds in commercialization, the agency is expected to dominate the UAV market, which is growing. As Ukraine and Indonesia currently showed considerable interest in the TR-60, it is highly likely to be exported in the future. Since the Tilt-Rotor is able to fly more than twice as fast as a helicopter with higher altitudes, it can monitor, search, reconnoiter, transport, and communicate in large areas.