Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ANKA, designed and produced by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), has now got an indigenous engine. Two PD-170 engines developed by TAI Motor Company (TEI) in Eskişehir were brought to TAI facilities to be tested on ANKA. According to the information obtained by C4Defence, ground tests are being conducted of ANKA, where a stronger indigenous engine is installed. Indigenous engine equipped ANKA's first flight is expected by the end of February. The platform will have many additional advantages such as being able to fly higher, longer and carry more payload.
The project, signed between the Undersecretariat for Defence Industries (SSM) and TEI on 27 December 2012, included the development of a turbodiesel aeronautical engine with superior technical features for use in MALE class unmanned aerial vehicles through domestic facilities.
According to the experiments, the 2,1-litre diesel engine produced 170 horsepower between 0 and 20 thousand feet (about 6 thousand 600 meters) at 2300 cycles. The altitude in which the engine's power began to fall as the amount of oxygen decreased was measured as 20 thousand feet as expected. The engine produced 130 horsepower at an altitude of 30,000 feet. At present, the current engine used on ANKA produces 155 horsepower between 0 and 11 thousand feet altitude. With this comparison, the critical altitude for the TEI's engine is twice as high compared to the current engine. At an altitude of 30,000 feet, it consumes 10-11 percent less fuel than the current engine while producing power twice as high. The TEI's engine is 5 kg heavier than the current engine, but the weight-power ratio also improves as it provides more power for this weight with flight performance. While the current engine rises to an altitude of 30 thousand feet with difficulty, the newly developed engine is not limited to 30 thousand feet and even easily flies at 40 thousand feet altitude. In this case, ANKA will have an engine that can reach 40 thousand feet altitude (about 13 thousand 300 meters).
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