Drone with 25-kg payload tested at world’s highest pass
MTOW includes the weight of the drone and the payload. The NewSpace Research and Technologies claimed to conducted the test flight on Tuesday.
3 min read
The team that carried out the test at Umling La Pass in Ladakh. ExpressA Bengaluru-based firm has claimed to have successfully tested a 100-kg Max Take Off Weight (MTOW) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) at an altitude of 19,024 feet at Ladakh’s Umling La pass, which also happens to be the highest motorable pass in the world.
MTOW includes the weight of the drone and the payload. The NewSpace Research and Technologies claimed to conducted the test flight on Tuesday.
Speaking to The Indian Express, the CEO of NewSpace, Sameer Joshi said the company has successfully demonstrated carriage of 25 kg of useful payload from the 5.800m high pass, with a radius of action greater than shown by the DJI FlyCart 30 drone of China at Mount Everest base camp in April 2024. During the flight testing in Ladakh, the NewSpace drone flew to an altitude of 6,200m, said Joshi, a former IAF fighter pilot.
Joshi claimed that this is a new world record at high altitude for a 100-kg MTOW class drone for High Altitude Operations. He said their product offers a great value for money to support autonomous drone operations towards civilian and military use cases.
“It will especially give a huge boost to support logistics carriage, disaster and rescue events and medical relief in the higher regions of J&K, Uttarakhand, and the North Eastern states,” he said.
When contacted, Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur (retd), who has commanded an IAF Helicopter Unit in Ladakh operating at the Siachen Glacier, said, “This is indeed good news vis-a-vis the claimed payload capability. At high altitudes, like in Siachen Glacier, this would come in handy to carry small, but important, loads like medicines and small spares to army posts. An added advantage would be that, weather and winds permitting, such transshipments can done at night too in emergency situations. Of course, field trials would be necessary to check practical applicability in the hills since electronics, especially navigation equipment do get adversely affected.”
The NewSpace drone can also augment the Ministry of Defence’s air maintenance sorties at high altitude, offering a huge reduction in cost per hour of manned flights in region. A Cheetah helicopter can carry around 25-75 kg load at around same altitude with much more cost per sortie. With both China and India engaged in a stand-off in the higher reaches of the Himalayas, private companies in the two countries are engaging in competitive development of logistics drones.
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