Teknofest attracts some 800,000 visitors
Rıza Özel - SAMSUN
Teknofest, Türkiye’s largest aerospace and technology festival held in the northern province of Samsun, has attracted nearly 800,000 visitors from around Türkiye.
The festival hosted technology-science competitions, airshows, exhibitions, summits, workshops, stage shows, concerts and some other events.
Besides receiving awards, many projects competing in different fields such as chip design, smart transportation, model satellite, artificial intelligence, unmanned underwater technologies and flying cars had the opportunity to cooperate with the companies operating in defense, transportation and communication fields.
Some 600,000 young people from 107 different countries competed in the festival. Over 22 million Turkish Liras ($1.2 million) of material support was granted to successful projects, and more than 7 million liras ($384,000) was provided to the teams that qualified to compete.
During the six-day event, domestically produced helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles were also showcased.
Türkiye’s unmanned fighter aircraft, Bayraktar Kızılelma, was displayed at the festival, attracting great attention despite ongoing design and development efforts.
The first prototype of Bayraktar Kızılelma developed by a Turkish manufacturer of drones, Baykar Technologies, claimed the limelight at the festival.
Kızılelma will be able to carry 1,500 kilograms of payload (weapons and devices, etc.). Its flight range is 930 kilometers, while the operating altitude was declared as 10,668 meters. It can operate in the air for five hours and has a maximum speed of 900 km/h.
Visiting the festival, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan put his signature on the combat drone.
The first flight of Kızılelma is expected to take place in 2023, according to Selçuk Bayraktar, the company’s chief technology officer.
Airshows also took place at the festival. Two Turkish-made unmanned aerial vehicles performed a formation flight for the first time, with Bayraktar serving as the second pilot.
Hürkuş and Bayraktar Akıncı, developed by Baykar Technologies, floated together in the air.
Addressing the young people competing in the festival at the closing ceremony, Bayraktar said, “You are our flag-bearers who will carry the torch of the ‘National Technology Move’ into the future, which will reach its goal not only with the youth’s efforts, but also with our nation embracing it.”
Teknofest, which was first organized in 2018, says that it aims to arouse interest in technology throughout the society and raise awareness about Türkiye’s transformation into a technology developing society with activities such as technology competitions, air shows and other events.
Its fourth edition was organized at Atatürk Airport in 2021 and welcomed 44,912 teams and 200,000 people from 81 provinces and 111 countries who applied for the technology competitions held in 35 different categories. And this year, in May, its first edition abroad was held in the Azerbaijani capital Baku.
