By Victoria Lemesheva
Mogilev has tested its first pilotless aircraft (from the Belarusian Military Academy). Each wing has two cameras, giving side and perspective views. The aircraft can descend, ascend and ‘hover’ in the air, controlled from the ground within a radius of 7km.
“The first trials have been conducted above the Mogilev-Gomel highway in the Bykhov District — I emphasise as a trial experiment,” notes Andrey Kolesnik, Senior Inspector on the State Road Inspection’s Agitation and Propaganda Department at the Mogilev Regional District Executive Committee’s Interior Department. “Belarusian specialists have been developing the pilotless aircraft for military purposes, so it needs to be adapted for our work, with video cameras installed in a different way and the speed slowed down. We’ll then be able to tackle traffic offences such as driving without a safety belt, crossing a continuous dividing line or using a mobile phone while driving.”
Several years ago, the State Road Inspection trialled the use of helicopters but these proved too expensive. The new pilotless device is cheaper to run and even uses rechargeable batteries. The Mogilev State Road Inspection plans to lease the device for the summer period, using it along the southern St. Petersburg-Odessa road, which runs through Belarus.
