Jets launches heavy lift hybrid drones

BENGALURU: Poeir Jets Friday launched what it said is India’s first ‘Heavy-lift Hybrid Drones’, that are fundamentally unmanned aircraft with fully customisable payload options.

Following the successful launch of the country’s firstMicrojet Engine series, Poeir moved on to develop India’sfirst Heavy lift Hybrid drones, which was launched at the ongoing Aero India 2019 here, the company said.

With the launch, the company aims to establish itself as industry leaders in providing propulsion solutions to UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems), company officials said.

Poeir Jets is a brand promoted by M/s Poeir Jets Pvt Ltd, an R&D subsidiary of Intech DMLS that claims to be India’s first private firm that has developed Jet Engines.

The Heavy-lift Drones are suitable for a wide variety of professional applications, from law enforcement to search and rescue operations, Poeir Jets said in a release.

Heavy-lift drone models developed by the company include, Hybrid Drone DRE 4, a Hexacopter powered with 4 kW APU that took its first flight in 2019.

It has the capacity tolift up to 5kg in a flight time of 60 minutes. Turbo Shaft MTS30 is under-testing for Hybrid Drone DJE 30 and UrbanFirefighting. It is suitable for multirotor craft weighing up to 200kg.

Also, Hybrid Drone DJE 30 is again a Hexacopter powered with 30 kW APU, currently under flight testing. It can take a payload of 75kg with a mission duration of 120 minutes; and Urban Firefighting Hopper is specially designed to restrain fire in high-rises.

The hopper is jointly developed by Poeir Jets and Drone Hopper, a company in Spain and can take a load of 180kg with a mission duration of 60 minutes. According to company officials, these battery and turbine engine powered drones are suited for the global market in the fields of Heavy-Lift Cargo, Civil, Agriculture, Forestry, Defence and other strategic applications.

The drones are easy to launch, assemble, service and operate, they said, adding that to ensure reliability they areundergoing rigorous in-house testing and are expected to beready for the market by 2021.

“In line with our success in indigenously developed Microjet Engines, we see drones as presenting the next big opportunity in modern-day aviation,” said Poeir Jets Co-Founder and Director Sridhar Balaram. (AGENCIES)