Turkish Aerospace published a video of ANKA-III with retracted landing gear. The “landing gear up” command signifies a new milestone on ANKA-III.
ANKA III retracted its landing gear in the air. It is intended for various missions, such as intelligence—surveillance—reconnaissance (ISR), electronic warfare and tanker. The tailless structure prevents the air platform from agile manoeuvres but provides vast interior volume for various missions.
Retracting the landing gear is a new milestone in the air platform’s lifecycle. This indicates the trust earned on the platform. Once the landing gear is up, the systems must be fully functional to put the landing gears back down. Retracting them shows that the entire system is tested for any potential failure and works.
Once it is retracted without necessary tests, the failure would mean, at best, landing on the body, which would result in wasting time and money. The stealth UCAV will now perform new tests to enlarge its flight envelope.
