The Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS, President Lee Jeong-hwan), a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT, has agreed to accelerate the development of aircraft materials and parts in cooperation with Korean Air, Korea's leading airline.

On the 23rd, at the '2023 Drone Show Korea' held at BEXCO in Busan, Korea Materials Research Institute signed a business agreement (MOU) with Korean Air for the development of aircraft materials and component technology.

With this agreement, the two organizations expressed their ambition to lead the drone industry, which has great future growth potential, and to revitalize the development of related industries by achieving domestic production of materials and component technology.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are multi-purpose aircraft that can be used for various purposes, including logistics transportation using small drones, urban air mobility (UAM), revitalizing the cargo and passenger transportation industries, and strengthening national defense systems.

It is expected to have a significant impact on future changes in batteries, autonomous driving, and transportation services.

Korean Air has been jointly participating in the development of Korea's first low-observable unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) led by the Agency for Defense Development (ADD) since 2010, successfully completing test flights.I have done it.

Low observable is a type of stealth technology that has a very small radar cross-section (RCS), making it difficult to detect with regular radar.

In addition, Korean Air is developing a high-heat/high-strength ceramic-based stealth composite structure for the Agency for Defense Development (KRIT), and is emerging as a leading tactical-level and mid-level unmanned aerial vehicle system integration company.

The two organizations plan to collaborate on various core technologies in the aircraft materials and parts field that the Korea Aerospace Research Institute possesses, as well as its experience in developing various materials and parts capable of absorbing radio waves through participation in the government's stealth composite core technology project, and Korean Air's radio wave absorbing structure design technology and airframe shape design and manufacturing technology, to achieve advanced low-observability performance with domestically-owned technology in a short period of time.

Lee Jeong-hwan, president of the Korea Institute of Materials Science, said, “In order to respond to the growth and utilization of the future unmanned aerial vehicle industry, it will be necessary to foster related material and component companies, establish a support system infrastructure, and provide corporate support and form a network for technology commercialization.” He added, “Through this business agreement with Korean Air, the Korea Institute of Materials Science will do its best to ensure that it can play a leading role in the development of aircraft materials and component technology as a leading materials research institute in Korea.”