The fifth edition of Türkiye's largest technology and aviation event Teknofest, in the Black Sea city of Samsun, has attracted 900,000 visitors.
According to information from Zülkif Dağli, the governor of Samsun province, the six-day event, starting last Tuesday, attracted visitors from all around the country as well as Europe and many friendly countries.
Organized at the Samsun Çarsamba Airport by the Turkish Technology Team Foundation (T3 Foundation) and Türkiye's Industry and Technology Ministry, the six-day event showcased activities such as air shows with warplanes, drones and helicopters, as well as seminars, summits and competitions.
The 2022 festival featured technology competitions in more than 40 different categories including semiconductors, UAVs, satellites, rockets, robotics and artificial intelligence.
This year, 600,000 people applied for the event's competitions. The event provided equipment worth millions of Turkish liras for competitors and granted more than TL 7 million ($384,085) to winners.
Meanwhile, Teknofest, in all its activities in various cities such as drone and rocket competitions, hosted 1.25 million visitors.
MinChan Kim from South Korea won the World Drone Cup-2022 competition, while Changhyeon Kang also from South Korea got second place and Killian Rousseau from France was third.
Selçuk Bayraktar, the chairperson of the T3 Foundation and chief technology officer (CTO) of Turkish drone magnate Baykar, said at the event "With hundreds of thousands of competitors, hundreds of stakeholders and volunteers, we had the rightful pride of organizing the world's largest technology festival."
At the event, there were 101 shareholders and 130 companies in attendance.
As part of the aircraft and transport exhibits, visitors were treated with a look at unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) Bayraktar TB2, Kızılelma and Aksungur, as well as F-16 and F-4 Phantom fighter jets, helicopters Gökbey and Bell 429, ongoing national warcraft projects MMU and Hürjet, indigenous trainer plane Hürkus, transport aircraft CASA CN-235, maritime patrol aircraft P-72, and the first indigenous flying car Cezeri.
Last year, the event was held at Istanbul's now-closed Atatürk Airport, while its first international iteration was held in Baku, Azerbaijan this May.
Officials are in dialogue with Pakistan, Indonesia and Uzbekistan for other international editions of the event in the years to come.
