By Tolga Yanik
ISTANBUL (AA) — A Turkish-made Akinci drone undertook a daring mission earlier this week as it joined efforts to locate the helicopter carrying late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, according to the technology chief of Baykar, the company that made the drone.
Selcuk Bayraktar, chairman of Baykar's Board of Directors and its chief technology officer, said the drone, developed by Turkish engineers, went to places where no aircraft would venture under normal circumstances through the mountains and valleys of northwestern Iran during the search and rescue mission.
Speaking at the Health Sciences and Technology Summit held at the Bezmialem Vakif University, Bayraktar delivered a presentation on the development process of Baykar's UAVs.
He said the Akinci, which took part in the search mission after the helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Raisi and his accompanying officials, made its first flight in 2019.
Noting that Baykar had developed drones that would be "the world's best in its class" in 15 years, Bayraktar said the company's TB2 drones had become "the unmanned aerial vehicle that has been exported to the most countries in the world and provides the highest performance at the lowest cost."
He stated that they developed all projects within Baykar with their own resources and said: "Such a technology company does not exist in Türkiye or in the rest of the world," he said, pointing to Baykar's innovative approach.
"The Bayraktar KIZILELMA made its first flight in 2022, approximately a year earlier than we promised our nation," he added, referring to the company's fighter drone.
"We will start flying the production prototypes and versions in about one to two months. We will have produced the KIZILELMAs this year and final integration efforts will continue in the coming years," Bayraktar said.