TAI Pelikan
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| TAI Pelikan | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Type | Unmanned drone reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition |
| Manufacturer | Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) |
| Status | Only prototypes are produced, program ended. |
| History | |
| First flight | 15 December 2003 |
TAI Pelikan, aka IHA-X2, is a radio-controlled reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition drone. Designed, developed and built by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a half scale model of the tactical drone TAI Baykuş air platform. It was produced as a training and bridge platform to the TAI Baykuş.[1]
Pelikan is the Turkish word for species pelican. TAI has some other UAV's named after birds.
The shoulder-winged UAV has all composite material airframe with metal twin tail booms. The drone is propelled by two 2-cylinder 2-stroke gasoline engines of type Zenoah G38 from Japan with 4 x 2.2 hp (1.6 kW) power.[2] There exist two versions of TAI Pelikan related to propeller configuration, a pusher and a tractor aircraft. The drone carries a two-axis gimbaled EO/IR camera, which relays its video in real-time telemetry. Its guidance/tracking takes place fully autonomous based on INS/GPS integrated waypoint navigation system. Take off and landing of the drone is accomplished in conventional way on wheels.[1][3]
