An unmanned fighter aircraft made by the Turkish company Baykar Technologies, namely the Kizilelma, began to conduct a test walk to/on the runway.

The tests were carried out at the Akinci Flight Training and Testing Center in Tekirdag Province, Turkey. This is a test operation before the Red Apple (Kizilelma) was first launched.

Kizilelma uses a single Ukrainian Ivchenko-Progress turbofan engine, the Kizilelma.

The UCAV with a canard-delta configuration said the company is capable of flying for six hours and has a combat radius of 500 nautical miles.

The 13,228 pound maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) aircraft can fly to an altitude of 35,000 feet.

For the first stage, the Kizirelma prototype is powered by a non-afterburning Ivchenko-Progress AI-25TLT turbofan engine. Later, the engine will be replaced with an afterburning Ivchenko-Progress AI-322F which can carry the Kizilema at supersonic speeds.

Unlike the Bayraktar TB2 and Bayraktar Akinci drones, the Kizilelma is designed to be able to carry out aerial combat like a manned fighter aircraft.

It also has the capability to conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) operations as well as attack.

For the radar, the company says the Kizilelma will be equipped with an AESA active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar.

The development of Kizilelma has actually started since 2013. However, this project was only revealed to the public in July 2021 when the conceptual study was presented.

The first flight of the Kizilelma prototype is scheduled to take place next year.

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