Selçuk Bayraktar: Achieving World-Class Aircraft in 10 Years
Selçuk Bayraktar, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of T3 Foundation, made an appearance at Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University (RTEÜ) for a ‘Youth Meeting’ program recently. While addressing the students, Bayraktar proudly announced, “We have built the world’s best aircraft in their class in 10 years.” He also pointed out that the Bayraktar TB2 is five times more known in the world than its rival in its class and stated that all unmanned aerial vehicles were developed with their own resources and income obtained from exports.
Bayraktar then shared his perspective on Turkey’s defense industry and stated, “When we look back 20 years ago, Turkey was 85 percent dependent on abroad in the defense industry. We were one of the countries that were almost completely dependent on foreign countries in aviation. In our time, when I sit like you in university desks, my biggest talent was to be a maintenance engineer in a foreign company.” He also highlighted the efforts Baykar made to develop technologies with the purpose of making the country’s skies independent.
Bayraktar proudly shared, “We have built the best airplanes in the world in their class in 10 years.” and announced that the Bayraktar TB2, an attack unmanned aerial vehicle only developed and exported by a few countries in the world, has set a record by being exported to 33 countries. Furthermore, he mentioned that the Baykar TB3 UAV was produced entirely locally and nationally and expressed that it will revolutionize the history of world combat when it is deployed on short-runway ships with Kızılelma.
Overall, Bayraktar expressed his pride in the advancements made by Baykar over the years and highlighted the importance of independence in the defense industry. The advancements made are a testament to the progress and innovation in Turkish aviation.
