On February 16, 2024 in Novosibirsk at the Yeltsovka experimental aviation airfield, the first flight of the Partizan ultra-short takeoff and landing transport unmanned aerial vehicle demonstrator developed under the order of the Foundation for Advanced Research took place.
The aircraft is being developed since 2019 by the S.A. Chaplygin Siberian Research Institute of Aviation (SibNIA) under the order of the Advanced Research Foundation (FPI) within the framework of the project “Development and flight testing of demonstrators of ultra-short takeoff and landing transport unmanned aircraft with hybrid propulsion system and active blowing of bearing surfaces”. At MAKS-2021 the technology was presented and flown on a flying laboratory based on the TVS-2MS airplane.
The first flight of the demonstrator was carried out in manned mode, the aircraft was piloted by Honored Test Pilot of Russia, Director of SibNIA Vladimir Barsuk. During the flight, data was collected for training of the automatic control system. The aircraft was in the air for 20 minutes, the flight took place at an altitude of 200 meters at a speed of 50 to 200 km/h.
Vladimir Barsuk expressed confidence in Partizan’s success and announced plans to establish a research and production center for unmanned aircraft systems on the basis of the Berdsk-Centralny airfield in cooperation with the Government of the Novosibirsk Region.
“Today during the first test flight we confirmed the declared takeoff and landing characteristics and stable control at ultra-low speeds. I am confident that “Partizan” will be able to become a worthy alternative to helicopter-type aircraft and will be in demand in various areas of application from cargo and passenger transportation, participation in rescue operations, firefighting to aviation and chemical operations, work in the interests of sanitary aviation, air monitoring. Therefore, we are currently working with the Government of the Novosibirsk Region to plan the creation of a research and production center for unmanned aircraft systems on the basis of the Berdsk-Centralny airfield,” explained Vladimir Barsuk.
The aircraft demonstrated a significant improvement in takeoff and landing performance compared to other aircraft of this class. The Partizan is characterized by a distributed electric propulsion system that blows the lower wing by propellers located along its leading edge, which are driven by compact electric motors. This system of active blowing considerably reduces the takeoff-landing distance and provides stable flight at speeds of 50 km/h already. At the MAKS-2021 airshow, a TVS-2MS airplane equipped with a similar hybrid propulsion system broke away from the runway five seconds after the start of the run-up.
In the near future, work is planned to confirm the demonstrator’s key characteristics and switch to unmanned test mode. After the tests are completed, Partizan should confirm the ability to carry cargoes up to one ton at distances of up to 1,000 km and perform take-off and landing on unprepared sites of 50 by 50 meters in both manned and unmanned modes.
Andrey Grigoriev, Director General of the FPI, commenting on the start of tests of the Partizan aircraft demonstrator, emphasized the importance of the new aircraft, which will be able to offer both autonomous cargo transportation and commercial transportation with passengers.
“As a result of the work, we will get a universal aircraft with the possibility of optional piloting. Thanks to the presence of the automatic control system, both fully autonomous cargo transportation in autonomous mode and passenger transportation in manned mode can be organized. The automatic control system will greatly simplify piloting the aircraft,” said the head of the FPI.
