Türkiye’s National Pride Bayraktar KIZILELMA Met with the Sky

On 23 January, Bayraktar KIZILELMA (Red Apple), Türkiye’s first unmanned fighter aircraft, developed nationally and originally with Baykar’s own capital, successfully performed its first flight.

“Our 20 YEARS DREAM”

Addressing the Baykar team after the successful first flight, Baykar Chairman of the Board and Technology Leader Selcuk Bayraktar said: “This has been our dream since we started the fight 20 years ago. The way we started with Bayraktar MINI UAV in 2004 came as far as Bayraktar KIZILELMA. We flew Bayraktar AKINCI for the first time on the same dates in 2019. Today, 3 years after AKINCI, Bayraktar KIZILELMA successfully completed its first flight to complete our failed adventure in aviation and to realize our 20-year dream. KIZILELMA expresses the future of the world in aviation and that we will no longer be followers but playmakers by shaping history.”

“KIZIELMA IS THE SYMBOL OF OUR REBIRTH IN TECHNOLOGY”

Selcuk Bayraktar said, “KIZIL ELMA is a target that gets farther away as it gets closer; and we will work non-stop for further goals. KIZILELMA is the symbol of the rebirth of our civilization in technology. With the self-confidence we have gained here, our country will also achieve great success in civilian technologies. Even if there are efforts to be a wedge, we will never turn from our path and we will work non-stop until we are fully independent in our skies. Thank you to all our colleagues and their families. I commemorate our late father Özdemir Bayraktar and all our friends we lost along the way. If my father had seen this day, I am sure he would have been very happy. I would also like to commemorate my mother Canan Bayraktar here. In addition, I would like to thank our President and our state elders, who have always supported us. I would like to thank our Ministry of National Defense, Turkish Armed Forces, SSB and all the institutions we work with on this path. I would like to express my gratitude to our nation, who did not miss their prayers from us,” he said.

LANDING AND TAKING off SHIPS WITH SHORT-RUNWAYS

Bayraktar KIZILELMA will be a platform that will revolutionize the battlefield with its landing and take-off capability, especially for ships with short runways. Bayraktar KIZILELMA, which has been developed to have the ability to land and take off on short-runway ships such as the TCG Anadolu ship, which Türkiye has built and is currently conducting cruise tests, will play an important role in overseas missions thanks to this capability. With this capability, it will assume a strategic role in the protection of the Blue Homeland.