Pages

Monday, June 24, 2013

Philippine-made Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)


A screen capture of the UAV during take-off
Philippines have developed a homegrown fully functional but less costly Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) prototypes a decade ago. This is a joint project of Philippine Army and OB Mapua and Partners firm with Architect Oscar Mapua as the main designer . Five UAV models were made namely Rica, Rufa, Alexandra, Assunta and Claudia. These UAVs are propeller-driven and made from of-the-shelf materials such as wood, foam, fiberglass and aluminum tubes compared to their more sophisticated foreign counterparts.

The UAVs on the ground
One of the prototypes, Assunta has a wing span of 120 inches and 50 inches in length outfitted with 40cc two-stroke gasoline engine. It weighs 30 pounds and can reach to a maximum speed of 148km/hr. It can remain airborne up to 2000 ft for 2 hrs and has maximum range of 20km. Each UAV costs roughly from P250 thousand to 1 million pesos with complete avionics, system and control station. Further development of these UAVs halted due to the alleged corruption in the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Watch the video on the ANC report on the development of Philippine-made UAVs in YouTube.

7 comments:

  1. Kaya pala talaga natin na gagawa ng mga military hardware. Sana susuportahan ng gobyerno natin ang mga 'to.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hmm. Alam niyo, I had this idea of an anti-ship/personnel missile, remember the Jericho missile system by Tony Stark? I know it's fictional but hey, we can actually develop one you know? The jericho used a top-attack profile. Top-attack profile has many advantages. :) SO please someone propose? PLEASE?

    ReplyDelete
  3. During Marcos era, the Philippines had developed land-based missile prototypes.
    But no one knows whether it is continued to the present amidst external threats.

    Check it out in my other post http://filipinoinventionsanddiscoveries.blogspot.com/2013/06/philippine-made-missiles-during-marcos.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. sayang napakalaki namn sana yung potential neto

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually sir Michael, I think this project still continues to the present. During the Zamboanga attack by rogue MNLF members last September 2013, a Phil. Army's Tactical UAV was seen flying in a reconnaissance mission. This report was confirmed by one the AFP's FB page that the drone is a "developed" version of these UAV prototypes.

      Delete
    2. look for PA-UAV-RAPTOR.. PHILIPPINES NEWEST DEVELOPED..PERO DELETE NILA S LHAT NG WEBSITE..FOR SECURITY REASON DAW..

      Delete
  5. sana upgrade pa ang layo at tagal na paglipad sa himpapawid pra The best!!

    ReplyDelete