NEW DELHI: DRDO's bid to build a pseudo-satellite that can loiter over the borders for days has taken another step, with its indigenous lighter-than-air High-Altitude Platform (HAPS) climbing to 21 km in a flight trial, the defence R&D organisation said on Tuesday.
The platform held station at 20 km for over 30 minutes before it was brought down on command and recovered. It relayed real-time video and flight data to the ground control station throughout the sortie.
The trial builds on the airship's maiden flight from Sheopur in Madhya Pradesh in May last year, when it reached 17 km in a 62-minute sortie that validated its envelope-pressure control and emergency-deflation systems.
Operating well above the ceiling of commercial jets and most military aircraft and drones, such platforms can provide persistent surveillance over an area at a fraction of a satellite's cost. They can carry imaging sensors, radars and communication payloads for border monitoring, intelligence gathering and disaster response.
The HAPS carried an inertial measurement unit, GPS receiver, onboard cameras and an altitude-control mechanism, among other subsystems. The flight data is now being analysed.
The trial was conducted in coordination with the IAF, the Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC), the DGCA, the Airports Authority of India and other civil authorities, the defence ministry said. Flying a platform at such altitudes requires tight airspace management and airworthiness clearances.