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Q42 (IAS/2025) Science & Technology › Space & Defence Technology › Military aircraft systems Answer Verified

With reference to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), consider the following statements: 1. All types of UAVs can do vertical landing. 2. All types of UAVs can do automated hovering. 3. All types of UAVs can use battery only as a source of power supply. How many of the statements given above are correct?

Result
Your answer:  ·  Correct: D
Explanation

None of the three statements are correct.

UAVs are robotic vehicles that can carry payloads and execute flying missions guided either by remote control or autonomously[1], but they come in various types with different capabilities.

**Statement 1 is incorrect** because not all UAV types can perform vertical landing. Fixed-wing UAVs, which operate like traditional airplanes, require forward motion and runways or horizontal landing strips. Only rotary-wing UAVs (like quadcopters) and VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) variants can land vertically.

**Statement 2 is incorrect** because automated hovering is primarily a capability of multi-rotor and rotary-wing UAVs. Fixed-wing UAVs cannot hover as they must maintain forward airspeed to generate lift and stay airborne.

**Statement 3 is incorrect** because UAVs use electric battery[2] as one power source, but not exclusively. UAVs can be powered by various systems including internal combustion engines, fuel cells[3], and hybrid power systems[4]. Different applications require different power solutions based on endurance and payload requirements.

Sources
  1. [1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/unmanned-aerial-vehicle
  2. [2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/unmanned-aerial-vehicle
  3. [3] https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/unmanned-aerial-vehicle
  4. [4] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-32313-2_reference.pdf
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Don’t just practise – reverse-engineer the question. This panel shows where this PYQ came from (books / web), how the examiner broke it into hidden statements, and which nearby micro-concepts you were supposed to learn from it. Treat it like an autopsy of the question: what might have triggered it, which exact lines in the book matter, and what linked ideas you should carry forward to future questions.
Q. With reference to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), consider the following statements: 1. All types of UAVs can do vertical landing. 2. A…
At a glance
Origin: Mostly Current Affairs Fairness: Low / Borderline fairness Books / CA: 0/10 · 3.3/10
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This is less a test of technical trivia and more a test of logical validity using the 'Extreme Statement' heuristic. The presence of 'All types' in every statement is a massive red flag. You don't need to know specific drone models; you just need to know that 'drones' include both mini-helicopters (quadcopters) and airplane-like vehicles (fixed-wing).

How this question is built

This question can be broken into the following sub-statements. Tap a statement sentence to jump into its detailed analysis.

Statement 1
Are all types of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) capable of vertical landing?
Origin: Weak / unclear Fairness: Borderline / guessy
Indirect textbook clues
Certificate Physical and Human Geography , GC Leong (Oxford University press 3rd ed.) > Chapter 30: World Communications > AIR TRANSPORT > p. 308
Strength: 5/5
“This new form of transport has great advantages, because it is little affected by ground conditions. An aeroplane can cross mountains, dense forests and large oceans with the greatest ease and speed. It can reach the remotest, the farthest and the most inhospitable places on earth provided a landing place is available. Modern commercial air services operated by large international airway corporations provide prompt and efficient services to practically anywhere on earth. There is a phenomenal growth in the world's aerial transport of passengers, mail and freight. Many parts of interior Africa, arid Australia and Arctic Canada are heavily dependent on scheduled and chartered air flights to link them with the outside world.”
Why relevant

Says an aeroplane can reach remote places provided a landing place is available — implying some aircraft require a prepared landing area (runway) rather than vertical touchdown.

How to extend

A student could combine this with basic knowledge that many UAVs are fixed-wing like aeroplanes to suspect fixed‑wing UAVs generally need runways and hence cannot land vertically without special design.

Certificate Physical and Human Geography , GC Leong (Oxford University press 3rd ed.) > Chapter 30: World Communications > AIR TRANSPORT > p. 309
Strength: 4/5
“Alien planes who make use of their air space will have to seek their permission to do so and also pay a fee for landing rights. Countries which are located at the strategic points of the earth for air communication like Honolulu, Rome, Singapore and Tokyo stand to make great gains from landing charges of international airlines Over heavily congested cities, especially over Europe and North America, highly sophisticated equipment has to be installed at all major air terminals to avoid possible aerial collisions.”
Why relevant

Discusses landing rights and major air terminals with sophisticated equipment, implying conventional aircraft operations rely on airports/landing infrastructure.

How to extend

Use this to reason that vehicles designed for conventional airport operations (including some UAVs) are unlikely to perform vertical landings without different infrastructure or design.

Science ,Class VIII . NCERT(Revised ed 2025) > Chapter 5: Exploring Forces > Activity 5.8: Let us observe > p. 72
Strength: 3/5
“You might have noticed that when an object is dropped from a height, it takes a straight vertical path downwards before touching the ground (Fig. 5.11a). When an object is thrown vertically upwards, the object moves up straight, slows down, stops momentarily at the top, and then takes a straight vertical path downwards (Fig. 5.11b). While going up, the speed of the object goes on decreasing till the object comes to a stop, its direction of motion changes and while coming down the Does the Earth pull every object with equal force? 72 speed goes on increasing. We say that the object undergoes a vertical motion when it moves in a vertical direction under the influence of the gravitational force.”
Why relevant

Explains vertical motion under gravity — establishes the concept of 'vertical' motion as distinct and requiring controlled up/down movement.

How to extend

A student can combine this physics idea with aircraft control requirements to infer vertical landing needs specific thrust/vectoring or rotors, unlike standard forward-flight fixed‑wing control.

Environment, Shankar IAS Acedemy .(ed 10th) > Chapter 22: Renewable Energy > 22.3.3 T\vo types of wind turbines > p. 290
Strength: 3/5
“• Horizontal-axis design has two or three blades that spin upwind of the tower. A horizontal axis machine has its blades rotating on an axis parallel to the ground. a) Vertical-axis turbines have vertical blades that rotate in and out of the wind. The vertical axis turbine has its blades rotating on an axis perpendicular to the ground. This drag-type turbine turns relatively slowly but yields a high torque.”
Why relevant

Contrasts vertical-axis vs horizontal-axis designs, showing that axis/orientation of rotating components affects motion characteristics.

How to extend

Extend this to aircraft propulsion/rotor design: vertical-axis (rotorcraft/VTOL) enable vertical lift, whereas horizontal-axis (conventional propellers/engines) support forward flight and not necessarily vertical landing.

Geography of India ,Majid Husain, (McGrawHill 9th ed.) > Chapter 12: Transport, Communications and Trade > Phase V: 2000–2010 > p. 55
Strength: 2/5
“In 2001, the first development flight of the GSLV took place. India is developing a project to send unmanned probe to the moon in 2008, as the first attempt at exploration of solar system.This project is called Chndrayaan.”
Why relevant

Mentions development of an unmanned probe (Chandrayaan) — an example of an unmanned vehicle built for specific mission profiles, implying diversity in unmanned vehicle designs and functions.

How to extend

Combine this with the fact that different unmanned designs serve different roles to conclude not all UAVs share the same landing capability; some are not intended to land vertically or at all.

Statement analysis

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Statement analysis

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