Ankara, Turkey – Turkish tire-maker Petlas has developed aircraft tires for unmanned warplanes to expand its military offerings.

The tires, said Petlas, are currently being used by Turkish defence company Bayraktar for a number of projects for the manufacture unmanned aerial combat vehicles.

Made with local technology, the tires have been fitted as original equipment on Bayraktra’s Kizilelma jet-powered aircraft, which will be developed into a supersonic jet in its future versions.

Petlas said the speciality tires went through a number of rigourous tests and met quality criteria set for the defence industry.

“It was determined that the tires produced by Petlas are of much higher quality than the tires produced abroad for the defence industry,” said Safa Özcan of Petlas parent company AKO Group.

Petlas operates a single production factory in Kirsehir, Turkey, where it has the capacity to produce 11 million tires per year.

The plant, claimed to be “Europe’s largest in terms of square metres”, manufactures a variety of tires, including passenger car, trucks & bus, off-road and aircraft tires, in 2,500 sizes.