Indigenously designed and developed Rustom-1 completed its eight successful flight on December 8. It flew at an altitude of 6,000 feet maximum and at a speed of 90 knots maximum during its 30 minutes flight near Hosur. The highlight of the flight was that Rustom-1 was test flown with the gimbal payload assembly carrying daylight TV & infrared camera for the first time. Good quality pictures were received from the camera in gimbal payload assembly.

P.S. Krishnan, Scientist & Director, Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) of the DRDO lab that has developed the medium altitude long endurance unmanned air vehicle (MALE UAV), said the flight was successful as all the systems worked well. He said all parameters were achieved by the aeroplane, which weighs 661 kg and the total performance was satisfactory.