FlightCom — Edition 108 — September 2017

FlightCom Magazine 19

AHRLAC PROGRESSES

to the next stage of development

C

ARRYING the

registration ZU-

PDM, the new

prototype features

substantial

improvements over

the first prototype,

XDM, which has

accumulated over

250 flying hours. The differences between

XDM and ADM include a redesigned

canopy to provide better clearance for the

new lightweight Martin-Baker Mk17

ejection seats, a longer nose, a stiffer and

lighter airframe that has been stressed

to 8 g (versus the XDM’s 4 g), and fully

retractable landing gear.

While the XDM was used to test and

validate the flight model and a broad range

of aircraft performance, as well as conduct

limited systems development and testing,

the ADM will be used to test the aircraft’s

performance and flight characteristics up

to its limits, and will be used to develop,

test, and validate the production-standard

avionics and missions systems, as well as

perform weapons integration.

Two more production-standard

AHRLACs are under construction at the

company’s new high-tech 15,000 square

metre factory at Wonderboom Airport in

Pretoria, each destined for a separate launch

customer. They will likely be completed

before the year is out, potentially at the same

time as the factory is officially unveiled to

media and the public.

That the programme has progressed to

this stage is itself a remarkable achievement,

given how many similar private aircraft

ventures have failed before the first

prototype has even flown.

Developing any new combat

aircraft from scratch is a monumental

undertaking, with even experienced aircraft

manufacturers often being unable to avoid

cost overruns and delays as a result of the

ever-increasing complexity of on-board

systems and the compromises wrought by

competing requirements.

Yet the team behind the AHRLAC has

managed to create a clean-sheet design, take

it to production, and achieve initial sales –

all on private funding – just six years after

initial design work was formally initiated.

This is, to say the least, unusual.

There have of course been a number of

setbacks and a few delays, but these were to

be expected in any project as complex and

new as this. The team has also done well to

calmly address and overcome each issue.

Credit must therefore be given to the

personnel from Paramount Group and

AHRLAC Holdings (and thus Aerosud)

who developed the aircraft, as well as

the team from Incomar Aeronautics who

have been so crucial for the flight testing

and certification phase. They embarked

on one of the most ambitious high-tech

industrialisation projects in recent years

in South Africa with a clear idea of what

they wanted to create and have met all their

initial goals.

Even if the project falters at the final

hurdle, and either struggles with production

issues or doesn’t achieve the hoped-for sales

numbers, the development offers interesting

lessons for future high-tech public and

private industrialisation projects in South

Africa and elsewhere on the continent,

especially in aerospace.

However, it must be emphasised that

while the first flight of ADM and completion

of the factory are important and impressive

milestones, the AHRLAC is still some way

from being a successful product. Some of

the most difficult challenges lie ahead. The

costly, time-consuming and complex task

of weapons integration and testing on the

New AHRLAC

manufacturing facility at

Wonderboom Airport.

At time of writing, the second AHRLAC prototype, the Advanced Development

Model (ADM), had begun its initial flight testing phase. It first flew in July, in a

significant milestone for the project’s backers.

Riekert and Osman Studios