CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (CSIR-NAL), Bengaluru, developed Q-Plane, the hybrid UAV, which has successfully flown over the Arabian Sea. The UAV’s capability was demonstrated by flying in rough weather conditions with strong winds of over 20 knots. The Q-Plane could autonomously navigate to a predefined point 20 kilometres away from the launch and return to the home location before the commencement of auto landing. It can fly for an hour in fixed-wing mode before it transits to multi-copter mode for landing.

The Q-Plane, equipped with four rotors in addition to forward propulsion, takes off vertically and lands vertically; hence, it does not require a launching mechanism. It transits from multi-copter mode to a fixed-wing mode autonomously. The in-house designed flight control algorithms ensure flawless operations in all weather conditions. The airframe is made of lightweight composite materials with minimum assembly joints. It has a 4 kg payload capacity and can be deployed to conduct surveillance missions, drop essential medicines, etc., during emergencies.

The trials were carried out in the presence of potential customers and officials from CSIR. The development team was excited to receive very encouraging comments from the user community. CSIR-NAL proudly declares that its UAV has unique capabilities compared to similar imported products.