The third prototype of the Gökbey helicopter, whose certification test activities continue, has started flight test activities.
President of the Presidency of Defense Industry Prof. Dr. İsmail Demir, stated in his statement on his official Twitter account that the third prototype of the Gökbey helicopter successfully performed its first flight. A new prototype of the Gökbey helicopter, whose certification testing activities are continuing, was included in the flight test activities with the aforementioned flight, which lasted approximately 40 minutes. It is known that Gökbey, Turkey’s first domestic and civilian helicopter, has 4 prototypes in total.
TAI Corporate Marketing and Communications President Serdar Demir attended the “Yıldız Technical University Defense Industry Days” event, of which Defence Turk was one of the press sponsors. Speaking at the event held in May 2021, Demir also gave some important information about him.
In his speech, Serdar Demir stated that Gökbey is Turkey’s first domestic and civilian helicopter and noted that, together with Gökbey, Turkey is one of the six countries producing its own helicopter. Noting that the Gökbey general-purpose helicopter, which is stated to have 4 prototypes already, continues its certification flights, Serdar Demir stated that after the certification phase, mass production will begin.
Within the scope of the GÖKBEY General Purpose Helicopter Program; cockpit equipment, automatic flight control computer, status monitoring computer, mission and flight management software for nationally developed military and civil light class prototype helicopters are developed by ASELSAN in accordance with civil certification and integrated into helicopters.
In February 2021, TEI (TUSAŞ Engine Industries) General Manager and Chairman of the Board Prof. Dr. Mahmut Akşit announced that after 2024, our national GÖKBEY helicopter will fly with our national engine.
Prof. Dr. Temel Kotil announced that the helicopter would start to be delivered in 2022. Kotil said in a statement, “The T-625 Gökbey is a helicopter behind the front line. In its class, there is a similar helicopter made by Italian Leonardo. I hope we will sell more than it in one year. Deliveries have not started yet. We will make the first delivery of Gökbey in 2022.”. Kotil also announced that the 4th prototype of Gökbey is in the production phase.
