Spin Craft has developed what it describes as India’s first indigenous 500cc twin-cylinder, two-stroke engine for unmanned aerial vehicles, drones and vertical take-off and landing aircraft.

The company said the powerplant was designed, developed and manufactured entirely in-house, marking a significant domestic propulsion-development effort for larger unmanned platforms.

The 500cc engine is intended to provide a compact piston-engine option for UAV missions that require greater endurance and payload capacity than battery-powered systems can ordinarily offer.

Twin-cylinder two-stroke engines can offer a favourable power-to-weight ratio, an important consideration for fixed-wing UAVs and VTOL aircraft operating with sensors, communications equipment or cargo payloads.

Spin Craft’s wider UAV-engine portfolio is aimed at applications including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, logistics, agricultural operations and maritime use. The company has highlighted domestic work in casting, precision machining, forging and electronic-control-unit integration.

The development could support India’s effort to reduce reliance on imported propulsion systems, which remain a critical component in the indigenous drone and unmanned-aircraft ecosystem.

Agencies