It is another glorious picture fail from FARS. This time, a claimed VTOL, the Roham.

A pretty cool design as it has absolutely no rotors or tail sitting encumbrances if it is the platform in the image. So quite how they are making it VTOL onto the shown skids I just don’t know.

I suspect the actual airframe is an SLT cobbled together from parts.

Tridges CanberraUAV Ardupilot powered one is a very tidy example.

FARS is fab at just releasing stuff that makes no sense. In 2013 Iran reinvented the

Microdrone and in 2012 photoshopped some wind turbines to invent another VTOL. The Koker. I have a feeling the drone shown in their image is Chinese and off the shelf but I am less inclined on a lazy Sunday to hunt it down!

The VTOL was unveiled in a ceremony in Tehran participated by Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan alongside other achievements, including the first home-made software to identify satellite orbits precisely, preparing topographic 3D 1/10000 and 1/25000 maps using satellite images, preparing and production of the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) automatically with a 5 meter margin, the first system to prepare maps using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), a hardware system to specify the exact time and the software to receive and produce information of hyperspectral satellites in the geography center of the defense ministry.

Elaborating on the VTOL’s specifications, General Dehqan said that it can be used for gathering information in unsurmountable and remote regions, seas, mountains and forests.

“Roham is able to land in and take off from any place favoured by the user, fly over any target at low altitudes and patrol areas at a high speed,” he added.

In recent years, Iran has made great achievements in its defence sector and attained self-sufficiency in producing essential military equipment and systems, including the UAVs.

Last year, Chancellor of Imam Hossein Comprehensive (military) University Brigadier General Morteza Saffari Iranian defense researchers built the country’s first home-made VTOL drone.

He referred to the aircraft features, and said the VTOL drone makes its vertical climb using two wings which increases its speed.

Noting that the US is the only other country which has built such drones, Saffari said the Iranian VTOL aircraft has been built by the Iranian university students for the first time in the country.

In 2013, an Iranian inventor designed and built a VTOL drone using combined fuel which he said was highly functional for military operations.

“The vertical climb Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) which uses combined fuel and has a big propeller and two side rotors can fly vertically for 2 hours,” Iranian inventor Ja’far Aqazadeh told FNA at the time.

Noting that the drone uses a fuel cell and a hydrogen generator system as its power source, Aqazadeh said the plane which was specially good for military missions was under flight test.

Other Quadplanes out in the Opensource wild