The indigenous 55hp wankel rotary combustion engine has been awarded provisional clearence certificate on 7th Feb, clearing it for mass p...
The wankel was developed under a joint program between CSIR- NAL and DRDO for the Nishant UAV built by ADE, DRDO.
This event attains significance due to the fact that very few engines developed in the country have been issued flight clearance by CEMILAC, the certification wing of the DRDO.
Based on the NAL Design, DRDO initiated fabrication of 20 engines with help of a Hyderabad based private firm.
The Wankel engine has been actively considered for powering light aircraft and UAVs in view of its unique advantages such as a relatively small size and a correspondingly high specific output.
In view of the salient features of the engine which makes it a suitable power plant for light weight aviation, an indigenous wankel engine development program was initiated by DRDO. The program to design and develop a flight worthy wankel engine was jointly taken up by CSIR-NAL, VRDE, and ADE. NAL, with its earlier exposure while working on Wankel engine for hang glider, took up the development of core engine for DRDO.
NAL designed and developed the core engine, VRDE and ADE were in-charge of peripheral systems and flight testing respectively.
As per the MOU two flight worthy prototype engines were delivered.
The first engine successfully completed a 40 min maiden flight on 31st march 2009 at the Kolar airfield. The UAV was recovered safely at the intended place at the dried-up Muduvadi Lake.
The flown engine underwent 20 hours and 10 hours of pre and post flight tests respectively.
The post-flight test was carried out confirmed that the engine’s performance was matching with the pre-flight performance.
The second flight test of the engine was carried out on 20th June 2012 .The flight took off at 1430 hrs in the afternoon and climbed to an altitude of 1.9 km. The total mission duration was 1 hour 45 min.
The first three engines produced by DRDO based on NAL design, also flight tested and the flight tests were up to requirements of the mission. Subsequently, CEMILAC accorded Certificate for ‘Limited Series Production’ on 7th February 2013.
The Wankel engine is the first of its kind that was totally designed and developed in the country. This type of engines are used for powering smaller air vehicles, UAVs, target drones and also in automotive (Mazda, and Racing Cars), out-board motor for boats and other industrial applications in particular for power generation, typically up to 80 kW.
