http://www.esquire.com/features/unmanned-aircraft-1109

Fantastic Anwar the future looks interesting
Wonder where we are in these temrs

even our cadets are made to learn on rc plane part of there course (my friend is an instructor in one of these places)

for me the future looks grime with all the automation going on any guy with a connection n a computer can start a war or that is what i see in most of these movies  

DRDO must be hard at work on similar projects.  Not sure how many private enterprises (HAL etc?) are also building prototypes.

It is strange that one day, air combat would be between these unmanned drones 

Anwar

I dont think HAL is a private enterprise..its a navratna organisation..meaning a govt org with more autonomy to handle its affairs. And DRDO does have a UAV called Nishant (but i dont think its a fighting machine...more of espionage i suppose)

Yes, HAL is related to the government (not sure it if is semi-government, autonomous etc etc).  Frankly, I did not know any other private enterprise examples, hence the reference to HAL !

Wonder if Nishant has been formulated into a full combat squadron ?

There are 2 categories of UAV's as per the latest thinking  :

UAV : Surveillance , Search and rescue routine
UCAV : Un manned Combat A.V.  : they are being designed to perform  maneuvers which  can even endure around 25 G forces  as the previous limitation was largely what the pilot could endure  so now with this limitation out of the way designers are now pushing  at machine endurance .

Looks like apart from flying  there is good potential for those who can design and make their auto pilots 
Sai

Here are some REALLY interesting issues that the military drone folks are facing, partly due to design issues with the current generation of drones.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-drone-crashes-20100706,0,1508593.story

There was one example of this daring (pretty much)suicidal mission in WW2.The Americans filled a plane with explosives flew it up to its destination and parachuted out at the last moment.DRDO can try this.One drone capable of battle is the predator B the Americans have.

HAL is a PSU entirely owned by MoD GoI (that is Ministry of Defence, Government of India). They are less into R&D and more into manufacturing. R&D part is left with DRDO, NAL, ADA etc.
India has Nishant, Lakshya in production, while first is basically a eye in the sky the second is a target UAV.
UAV's and UCAV's like Rustom, Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), and Project Aura are in the development stage per news availble in public domain.

Quote from: anwar on October 15, 2009, 06:49:47 PM
DRDO must be hard at work on similar projects.  Not sure how many private enterprises (HAL etc?) are also building prototypes.

It is strange that one day, air combat would be between these unmanned drones 

http://www.tataadvancedsystems.com/section.aspx?mId=3&cId=28

Tata advance system are one private company which are into development of UAVs for sometime now. Not sure if they have a flight ready prototype though

This is one cvompany which already has comercialised the application developed/sourced by them. http://www.specksystems.com/
One of the members on both the forums earlier worked for them. 

Some really good links and resources I'm going to utilize at our UAVpilot.org site.

Thanks, guys. India is working up to being a big player in the global UAV scene.

I can only imagine future wars !

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/01/09/drones_make_up_one_third_of_u_s_military_aircraft_.html

This UAV is interesting , must be extremely nose heavy, (Tail down stab for launch) very docile to fly and lot of trim drag at low speed , speed range due low T/C and reflex camber at the trailing edge must b making it again good aerofoil to handle, this should be tried out by some of our scratch builders (Like sandy ..)

And this : http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/ufo-drone-x47b/ 

A carrier based one !

Many many amazing gadgets and tools in this video !

Gusty sir that type of aircraft is also manufactured in India by MKU! one of my friend is working on that UAV as Field Pilot like me
http://www.mku.com/terp_s.asp

Why our Indian Military/Engineers dot'n feature on such sites banners/media!!Byt the pics,  I thought it is yet another Israeli / American firm. But surprised to see a neighboring Kanpur address!
Nice job... Do they sell the air frame cheap ?

WOW! This is just amazing to know....

Wonder how hard is for them to import equipment and what all trouble they go through .... compared the trouble we have importing stuff for the hobby....


LOL! 

why ujjwal bhai want one? i can ask my friend for one for you
these are built upto military standards like -20 c to 55 c temp handling!
assembled in less than 5 minutes without using any tool ! and from bag to mission launch less than 7 minutes!
believe me these are rugged models can take good beatings !
especially this bird has 2 hr endurance.

Quote from: praveen on January 25, 2012, 05:09:20 PM
Gusty sir that type of aircraft is also manufactured in India by MKU! one of my friend is working on that UAV as Field Pilot like me
http://www.mku.com/terp_s.asp

good to see that, that was news to me, but we have DRDO

Quote from: augustinev on January 25, 2012, 08:52:18 PM
good to see that, that was news to me, but we have DRDO

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/india-conducts-flight-trials-of-micro-mini-air-vehicles/articleshow/11631655.cms

Must have imported from HK 

http://www.suasnews.com/2012/01/11513/india-conducts-flight-trials-of-three-mavs/