KAAN, one of Turkey’s most important technology projects carried out by Turkish Aerospace Industries under the coordination of the Presidency of Defence Industries, recently performed its first flight. The tyres designed by Petlas, which has the only accredited aircraft tyre test centre in Turkey, successfully completed the take-off and landing tests on the KAAN platform.
Operating within AKO Group, Petlas continues to contribute to the nationalisation of Turkey’s defence industry. Petlas produces special tyres at superior standards for the needs of military units and security forces. It develops tyres for strategic projects in the defence industry and aviation. Petlas tyres used in Hürkuş, Hürjet, Anka, Anka S, Aksungur, Bayraktar TB2 and TB3, Akıncı and Bayraktar Kızılelma, an unmanned combat aircraft, were recently preferred in KAAN, the newest national combat aircraft developed with national technology. KAAN, in which Petlas tyres were used, was awarded the National Accreditation Certificate by the Turkish Accreditation Agency (TÜRKAK) with its Tyre Testing Laboratory, which has the capability to test aircraft tyres in many international test methods, received full marks with its first flight.
“We minimise external dependence”
Stating that Petlas tyres successfully passed the tests they were subjected to and came to the forefront by meeting all the criteria critical for the defence industry, AKO Group Board Member S. Safa Özcan said, “KAAN, which enables Turkey to take its place among the countries with the 5th generation fighter jet, successfully made its first flight. As Petlas, we are very happy for our contribution to minimising foreign dependency with our position as Turkey’s flag carrier brand. In Europe’s largest tyre factory under a single roof in terms of both square metres and product variety, we produce high quality tyres in more than 2,500 sizes with 80 different patterns for almost all vehicle types from passenger cars to trucks, buses to racing vehicles, tractors to construction equipment, not only with our military tyres. We are currently the tyre manufacturer exporting the most tyres from Turkey.”
The only tyre manufacturer that can provide added value to Turkey
Petlas develops its tyres in fully equipped R&D laboratories by testing them in its own accredited test centre.With its advanced R&D and test laboratories, Petlas broke new ground in Turkey and was awarded the TS EN ISO/IEC 17025 National Accreditation Certificate for Aircraft Tyres by TÜRKAK.With this certificate, 22 tyre products of 15 different platforms of national aircraft projects in the field of defence industry aviation, which are among the recent national moves of our country, will be tested and approved with national accreditation, and both the tyres of the aircraft and the international approval will be localised.
Petlas, a subsidiary of AKO Group, produces tyres required by the defence industry in Turkey and in many countries around the world. In addition, it contributes to the strategic localisation target in military land vehicles FNSS 4×4 STA, ÖMTTZA and BMC Howitzer, Tank Carrier and Tulga. Military tyres developed by Petlas are preferred by many brands as original equipment tyres.
