Philippine Made UAVs

Decade ago UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle was developed by Philippines, a fully functional but yet less costly unmanned vehicle.

The project was a joint force of PAF, OB Mapua, Partners firm and Oscar Mapua as main designer. A total of 5 UAV units were made by Rica, Alexandra Assunta, Rufa and Claudia. The UAV’s were driven by propeller made from shelf materials like foam, fiberglass wood and aluminum tubes.

The Assunta as one of its prototypes has 120 inches wing span and 50 inches length powered with two stroke 40cc gasoline engine. The total weigh is about 30 points that has a maximum speed about 148 kilometers per hour. The UAV can remain airborne as high as 2000 ft for two hours at 20km maximum range.

The estimated cost of each UAV’s was around Php250 thousand up to Php1 million equipped with complete system, avionics and control station.

“But sadly the development of the UAV’s was stopped due to corruption issues with the Philippine Military”