MOSCOW. Aug 27 (Interfax-AVN) - The tests of the new control system for the Sova small drone helicopter started in Russia.
"The system will help automatically stabilize the aircraft on the ground-line on course and speed, perform take-off and landing, guide the helicopter to the tasked territory at the distance of 30km with the help of the GPS and GLONASS satellite navigation systems. The system permit us to considerably ease control over the helicopter," Alexander Zhalkin, director general of the Spetskomelektropribor company that designed the system, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Tuesday.
He said that taking into account the high automatization level the new system helped scale down the hand control over the helicopter to the most primitive commands such as take-off, landing, turnover and movements in all directions. The system also does not demand special training from its user.
The Sova helicopter weighs 18kg and is capable to fly at the height of 10 to 300 meters moving with the speed of up to 60kmp. The helicopter has protected propellers that help avoid damages in clashes. The helicopter's corps permits to locate a huge amount of various equipment and payload.
The helicopter is tasked to patrol communications, carry out border guard, customs and police missions, secure important installations, hold environment-protection, oil and gas monitoring, ice reconnaissance, fish securing, fire-fighting monitoring of forests and peatlands, accomplish research and rescue missions and deliver light weight cargoes. The aircraft can also be used for engineering, radar, chemical and biological reconnaissance, retranslation of information in dangerous circumstances. Thanks to the IR imagers the helicopter can be used at night.
The cost of the helicopter in its standard variant with calculator, stabilizer and devices will make USD20,000-25,000. "The helicopter's cost without the control system will amount to only 15% of the sum," Zhalkin said.
According to specialists, such helicopters are very useful in accomplishing a wide scale of military and dual purpose missions such as reconnaissance of secured installations in military conflict zones, target-orienting and aerophotoshooting up to monitoring territories suffering from fires, wide-scale emergencies and disasters.