10:45 GMT, July 31, 2009 Israeli Aeronautics Defense Systems last week completed a first test flight with a prototype of its Dominator II unmanned air vehicle (UAV). The Dominator II Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) is based on the Austrian Diamond DA-42 twin-engined general aviation aircraft.

The MALE UAV, also known as Oz, can be equipped with a variety of payloads weighing up to 400kg with an operational ceiling of 30,000ft and mission endurance of 28 hours at speeds ranging from 75 to 190 knots.

Following to the first series of trials additional systems and sensors will be integrated. According to Avi Leumi, CEO of Aeronautics initial test flights have been successful.

"Interest and demand for the Dominator II have far exceeded our expectations, and we believe that in the coming years Aeronautics will sell dozens of systems around the world. There is tremendous potential for civilian use of UAVs," he said to defense-update.

In a similar approach to transform a civilian aircraft to an unmanned platform, Sagem (Safran group) and Stemme recently carried out flight tests with their Patroller long-endurance surveillance UAV system, scheduled to be qualified in 2010 (see: http://www.defpro.com/news/details/8858).