May 2021

FlightCm African Commercial Aviation Edition 150 | May 2021

Darren Olivier – The Sixth Generation Fighter

The DTIC's AEROSPACE

INDUSTRY SUPPORT INITIATIVE: getting much done from little

BRIEFING – Airline Partnerships and Alliances

AIR AUSTRAL’S

JOSEPH MARIE MALE the dtic

1

Department: Trade, Industry and Competition REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

FlightCom Magazine

the dtic

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CONTENTS

TABLE OF

Publisher Flyer and Aviation Publications cc Managing Editor Guy Leitch guy@flightcommag.com Advertising Sales Wayne Wilson wayne@saflyermag.co.za Layout & Design Emily-Jane Kinnear Patrick Tillman

MAY 2021 EDITION 150

ADMIN: +27 (0)83 607 2335 TRAFFIC: +27 (0)81 039 0595 ACCOUNTS: +27 (0)15 793 0708

06 12 16 19 20 24 25 26 30 36 38

Aerospace: Support Initiative Airline Partnerships Bush Pilot - Hugh Pryor AME Directory Airline Ops - Mike Gough Starlite Directory Atlas Oil Charter Directory Face to Face - CEO of Air Austral Defence - Darren Olivier AEP AMO Listing Backpage Directory

© FlightCom 2021. All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronically, mechanically, photocopied, recorded or otherwise without the express permission of the copyright holders.

A NOTE FROM

THE EDITOR: IATA IS AN EXEMPLARY ORGANISATION. It has effectively promoted and defended air travel and its airline members for 75 years.

I have attended IATA’s annual global media briefings in Geneva for many years and have been privileged to develop relationships with many of the key people who do much excellent research. So when in the middle of the Covid lockdown, IATA announced that the risk of Covid infection from being squeezed three into a seat row on an airliner was less than 1%, I accepted it as fact.

This despite my common experience of picking up some sort of flu or cold when flying long haul. And as a side note – I am writing this from my Covid-pneumonia hospital bed.

Of course there are always there sides to any story.

IATA was quick to drive a few truck sized holes in the CDC study. They pointed out that the study did not consider the significant risk-reduction impacts of the wearing of facemasks by passengers and cabin staff (nor could it have, given that the data collection occurred in 2017).

The Harvard School of Public Health Aviation Public Health also disagreed with the CDC study by quoting a study which, “substantiates that the layered approach of Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPI) instituted on commercial aircraft - effectively diluting and removing pathogens and in combination with face masks - results in a very low risk of SARS-COV-2 disease transmission on aircraft.”

This would be a disaster for the airlines

IATA argued convincingly that the aircraft’s HEPA filters and the cabin air recirculation prevents the lateral spread of the virus as the cabin air enters from above and discharges through the floor.

And then last month, my unspoken reservations about this very low rate of infection seemed to be confirmed when something of a bombshell study was published by the United States Center for Diseases Control (CDC).

The study found that based on scenarios in which the middle seat was vacant, infection was reduced by 23% to 57%, compared with full aircraft occupancy. The conclusion was clear: “Physical distancing of airplane passengers, including through policies such as middle seat vacancy, could provide additional reductions in risk for exposure to SARS-CoV-2 on aircraft.”

This would be a disaster for the airlines which, with roughly 33% of their seats unsellable, could never be able to return to profitability.

“Additionally, the CDC study addresses only exposure and not transmission. There have not been large numbers of confirmed or suspected cases of onboard transmission reported at any stage of the pandemic, and almost all of those that were, occurred without the wearing of masks on-board.”

The big thing is the multi layered approach. If the airlines can continue to prevent Covid Positive people from getting onboard there will zero spread of infection in flight. And the UK and USA amongst others are approaching herd immunity. So we can be optimistic for a return to sustainable air travel levels at the beginning of the third quarter of this year. This will be a life saver for many struggling tourism businesses. 

AEROSPACE

By Toby Chance

AEROSPACE INDUSTRY

SUPPORT INITIATIVE - PUNCHING ABOVE ITS WEIGHT

In a well-functioning economy, as in the natural world, the big gorillas in each sector dominate the ecosystem while hierarchies of organisations evolve below them to create the diversity and abundance for the whole to thrive. The aerospace industry is no exception.

M

ARIÉ BOTHA IS A KEY player in stimulating the small to medium enterprise segment of the industry as Programme Manager of the Aerospace Industry Support Initiative (AISI). This is where the innovations and technology breakthroughs are mostly found so it is vital that the green sprouts are nurtured and fed.

AISI is a programme of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), under the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic). It was established in 2006 as part of government’s strategy of improving competitiveness in the sector with a specific emphasis on industrialisation of technology and technology-based supplier development. In the post-Covid world and with South Africa’s economy under strain, driving localisation and exports are now its top priorities.

Botha emphasises the need for a strong product platform to drive the industry, which is experiencing a serious skills exodus. The Rooivalk helicopter was that platform in days of old, but with nothing to replace it and Denel’s years of mismanagement placing its future in jeopardy, the entire ecosystem is in danger of collapsing.

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the dtic

Marié Botha heads up the dtic's AISI.

It is in this unstable environment that AISI aims to make a difference to the businesses lower down the food chain: the start-ups and emerging businesses that rely on larger customers to prosper. With a limited annual budget of around R20 million its efforts have had a remarkable impact, boosting advanced design and manufacturing capabilities in the sector leading to innovation, job creation and a boost to exports.

Sentian UAV Project of Proceptworks.

The AISI’s Technology-Based Supplier Development intervention provides enabling mechanisms to assist industry to improve productivity, implement quality management systems, optimise operations and integration into global supply chains.

Its Industry Development and Technology Support programme focuses on advancing production innovation such as the use of advanced manufacturing and other fourth industrial revolution technologies to build more durable, compact and efficient products.

Beneficiaries supported have projects at a technology readiness level 4, above which are companies with technology proven in the laboratory and being up-scaled for industrialisation. They are supported with funding, strategic advice, skills development and market access through networking along the supply chain. Access to new and existing processes, products and methods is also facilitated to ensure that beneficiaries develop products and services, which enable them to exploit multiple market opportunities.

AISI’s greatest need, according to Botha, is more focused government support and more local customers.

In trying to supplement its limited budget and support capabilities, AISI has a partnership with the Small Enterprise Development Agency and Small Enterprise Finance Agency, both reporting to the Department of Small Business Development. On the radar is an effort to tap into international funds but this is some way off, Botha says.

The success of AISI has prompted the dtic and CSIR to expand its support model into other sectors such as automotive manufacturing, medical devices and energy. If South Africa is going to succeed in keeping and attracting hi-tech skills and develop its export profile, government and the private sector will need to re-double their efforts to work collaboratively, with ambitious targets and the resources to match. AISI is a shining example of how much can be done with a little.

Companies wishing to apply to AISI should look out for their annual request for submissions which can be found on their website https://aisi.csir.co.za/

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The Proceptworks team of Dalumuzi Dube, Nigel Nkundhlande, Ischmael Chiremba and Edmond Moyo.

SOME NOTABLE SUCCESSES AISI’s Technology-based supplier development programme have had a number of notable successes in the African aerospace sector.

Beneficiary name: Cape Aerospace Technologies Project in progress: 400 N Gas Turbine Industrialisation Product market: Recreational aviation aircraft and unmanned systems Cape Aerospace Technologies (CAT) specialises in the design and manufacture of propulsion systems based on gas turbine technology and associated electronic control systems. After the successful industrialisation of a 250 N gas turbine engine, with support from AISI, is has set its sights on building and commercialising a 400 N engine in a three year project.

project has been completed and is the outcome of an AISI-initiated roadmapping exercise.

To get a sense of scale, their micro-engine will be mounted on an airframe in a limited space and must conform to an “envelope” with an engine diameter of 147 mm, an engine length of 380 mm and a total weight of less than 4kg.

David Krige, Managing Director & Head of Propulsion Systems, explains, “the critical and major components for engine operation are the impeller, the diffuser, the combustion chamber, and the turbine stator and rotor. These are the internal components making all things possible for the engine. Therefore, they must be designed to match one another.”

with a limited annual budget of around R20 million, its efforts have had a remarkable impact

This Cape Town based company has a three decade history stretching back to the 1980s when it designed and built the first pulse jet in South Africa. Today, in close collaboration with Stellenbosch University it is focusing on micro and small engines aimed at the recreational aircraft and defence industries.

The 400 N project has been planned in six stages and is currently ahead of schedule. Phase 1 of this three-year

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Cape Aerospace Technologies ascribes its success to its meticulous in-house design-tomanufacture process, including engine and subsystem assembly and testing. Krige confirms that Cape Aerospace Technologies will localise up to 80% of the 400 N content.

Beneficiary name: Jonker Sailplanes Project in progress: 24m Wingspan Open Class JS Product market: Recreational aviation aircraft Potchefstroom-based Jonker Sailplanes is the only significant manufacturer of sailplanes outside Europe

Gas Turbine Industrialisation Project of Cape Aerospace Technologies towards the development of a 400N Engine.

the dtic

The CAT 400 turbine assembly, is an AISI assisted product development.

24m Wingspan Open Class JS Project of Jonker Sailplanes.

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and has successfully exported the JS1C Revelation and the JS3 Rapture. The company has made good progress during the first phase of a three-year project based on an AISI-initiated roadmapping exercise, for the design and industrialisation of a new model, the JS2-24 with a 24.5m wingspan.

Says Uys Jonker, Managing Director, “this development is in response to international market demand, and the fact that competition in the Open Class in recent years from the EB29R sailplane has meant that we need to innovate to meet our competition head-on.”

The team at Jonker Sailplanes worked with the North-West University on the relevant aerodynamic research and engineering for this product to outclass any competition. Basic aerodynamic research was conducted to develop better profiles, reduced drag of all interfacing surfaces and to optimise plan forms. The 24.5m wing design presented challenges stemming from the aerodynamic requirement for a long, slender and thin wing, while the structural design required a wing with a larger cross section. Jonker confirms, “It required five design iterations to enable the convergence of the conflicting structural and aerodynamic requirements.”

CSIR Windtunnel.

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Several design challenges were addressed in Phase 1, some of which were fully resolved while others will be addressed during the next phase. These included the design of the structure at the wing root area, which requires further design verification; driving of the flaperons at four stations to reduce twist deformation which impacts performance; design of the wingtip lockpin to fit under the flaperon driver tube; and a new airbrake design with an extra lift arm in the middle to pull down the airbrake cap.

Beneficiary name: Proceptworks Project completed: Sentian UAV Product market: Unmanned systems 100% black-owned Proceptworks, based in the Maboneng precinct in Johannesburg, is the brainchild of four engineering students from the University of the Witwatersrand who had a vision to build a drone manufacturing company. Formed in 2015, it progressed rapidly and was the SMME and Overall Winner of the 2019 ATNS AVI Awards and Runner Up in the 2019 SACAA Civil Aviation Industry Awards: Aviation Innovation category.

AISI is proud of its association with the world beating Jonker Sailplanes.

Under their direction, significant progress on the development of a uniquely South African modular unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), dubbed Sentian, has seen the airborne platform completed by the end of 2020. Conceptualised as a ‘drone for good’ in the service of humanity, this UAV has the potential to support and help all forms of sustainable life.

Examples include the use of its payload to deliver critical medical supplies or to provide surveillance of crops.

“It is one of the most exciting projects we are supporting”, says AISI Programme Manager Marié Botha. It’s an exemplar for young, black engineers to aspire to and fits exactly the profile of the new generation businesses AISI aims to support.”

Dalumuzi Dube, Edmond Moyo, Ishmael Chiremba and Nigel Nkundhlande of Proceptworks are satisfied with the outcomes achieved over the past year. The team built a quadcopter as an experimental test bed to ascertain flight dynamics for performance and stability as well as takeoff and landing capabilities.

The quadcopter outperformed expectations for flight, vertical takeoff, landing and hovering, as well as stability.”

These results were then used to configure the systems required for control and flight, notably the flight controller (for which Pixhawk, a sophisticated autopilot system, was utilised) and the ground control system. Successful flight tests were conducted at James and Ethel Gray Park, Johannesburg, a model plane flying venue. 

the dtic

the dtic

Department: Trade, Industry and Competition REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

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AIRLINES

AIRLINE

PARTNERSHIPS As an educational tool or refresher course to our readers, we run an occasional series of briefing articles to explain key aspects of the airline industry that often cause confusion. This month we provide an overview of the range of airline alliances, codeshares, partnerships and joint ventures.

T

HE GROWTH OF THE AIRLINE hub and spoke network model transformed the way Airlines serve their passengers in terms of the range of destinations on offer.

However, due to the route limitations inherent in hub-and-spoke networks, airlines formed alliances to broaden their route networks beyond the restrictions of the hub-and-spoke model.

Alliances between airlines are as arrangements entered into between airlines to share routes, and to a lesser extent to share ground infrastructure such as booking systems and offices. The key advantages of such alliances are that the airlines can expand their route network and feed their own operated routes, thus achieving economies of scale.

encourage people to choose certain routes over others.

The airlines then decide on how to share the earnings equitably among the partners.

A key driver of alliances is the need to have tied, or dedicated, feeder routes to the hubs to connect longhaul services. In South Africa a good example of this are SA Express (While it operated) and Airlink airlines, which were both tied airlines to feed the SAA long-haul route network.

Africa’s small, badly run airlines cannot compete against the super-connectors

Alliances also give airlines multiple options for routing passengers. One such example is ‘sharing metal’ – when a passenger flies on an alliance partner’s aircraft.

This has become common practice globally and means that airlines need to provide pricing incentives that 12

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Alliances and partnerships between airlines have therefore become a necessary characteristic of the global air travel market.

These partnerships cover a continuum from the most basic arms-length interlining agreements to joint ventures, and in the most complete sense, mergers involving equity partnerships. These partnerships and mergers are discussed in the following paragraphs.

THE HUB AND SPOKE MODEL The hub-and-spoke model has come to dominate long-

The ill-fated attempt to start a pan-African alliance using one of SAA's Boeing 747SPs.

haul air transport linkages, while the point-to-point model is the dominant paradigm for LCCs. This has had a number of consequences for African airlines:

feed the hubs, so that they in turn can be fed by them.

Lastly, Africa’s small, badly run and undercapitalised airlines cannot compete against the super-connectors.

First, the cost of establishing hubs is high and has created a natural barrier to entry for both airlines and their home states, which would be required to fund the hub development. Second, given Africa’s fragmented political landscape, it has proven difficult to achieve enough cooperation across states to agree on the location of a hub.

This is particularly the case in west Africa, although east Africa has effectively developed two hubs, being Addis Ababa and Nairobi, while southern Africa has Johannesburg. (By way of anecdotal illustration of the difficulties of regional cooperation, despite the undesirable colonial legacy of the name Victoria Falls, Zambia and Zimbabwe cannot agree on an alternative name and so the original colonial name has endured.)

Third, and perhaps most importantly to this discussion on alliances, the need to bulk-up traffic to feed the hubs has required regional airlines to cooperate in order to

It can be concluded that taken together, these factors have created an imperative for African airlines to form alliances with the large European or Middle Eastern carriers. The adage, ‘If you can’t beat them, join them’, is apposite in this regard.

sharing metal allows more flights and thus creates more traffic MERGERS

As the hub-and-spoke model grew to dominate airline route structures, it became evident that size is important to airline success and that mergers became more commonplace. There are a many examples: The International Airlines Group (IAG), formed in 2011

by British Airways and Iberia; the KLM /Air France holding group; and the 2012 merger of Continental and United airlines in the USA. Of specific interest to Africa is the merger between two

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smaller struggling South American airlines: Chile’s LAN and Brazil’s TAM airlines, which formed LATAM. This created the economies of scale and a route network large enough to enable the airline to be notably successful, with a consistent history of growth and profits since its establishment in 2011.

ALLIANCES The current dominant structures created for partnerships are the three key airline alliances: Star Alliance founded in 1997, was the first and is still the largest, followed by Oneworld in 1999 and SkyTeam in 2000. The key characteristics of alliances are that member airlines pay dues to their chosen alliance, and then reciprocate benefits to other partner airline passengers. The key advantage for passengers is that they can expect consistent standards across the alliance, and shared benefits in loyalty programmes.

These alliances permit airlines to coordinate their operations by ‘sharing metal’ and allows them to provide more flights and thus create more traffic, by placing their passengers on another airline’s aircraft.

While the airline must naturally pay the other airline to carry their passengers, they retain a margin which is pure profit, and which avoids the cost of operating aircraft which are not full.

Alliances add value by using an agreed pricing strategy between alliance members to reduce fares between hubs. Contentiously for the competition authorities, the reduction in competition between hubs has a countervailing effect, in that the total surplus produced typically rises, suggesting that the positive effects of alliances may outweigh any negative impacts.

AIRLINE PARTNERSHIPS As noted, there is broad evidence that Africa’s

The Hub and Spoke model of air connectvity.

small, poorly managed and undercapitalised airlines cannot compete against the super-connectors. ‘Superconnectors’ is one of the terms used to describe the Gulf three middle-eastern airlines, namely Emirates, Etihad and Qatar, although Turkish Airlines is increasingly considered as one of the super-connectors. (The Gulf Three are also called the Middle East 3, or ME3).

The inability of small African airlines to compete against these very large carriers is evident in the extent to which the super-connectors are increasingly taking over routes to and within Africa, which formerly were operated by African-based airlines. Given the competitive airline hub-and-spoke distribution pattern that created the necessity of having tied feeder routes to support long-haul services, partnerships between 14

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airlines have become a necessary characteristic of the air travel environment.

INTERLINING After the three alliances, interline agreements are the next broadest type of agreement between airlines.

Interline agreements encompass a wide level of cooperation, as there are airlines that have interline agreements who do not otherwise partner.

An interline agreement is an agreement between airlines to handle passengers when they are travelling on multiple airlines on the same itinerary. This makes it possible for passengers to check-in with their bags

The Point to Point model of air connectvity - with not all connections shown.

actual flight is operated by the ‘Operating carrier’ or more precisely (and in line with IATA definitions), the ‘Administrating carrier’, (abbreviated to OPE CXR).

The shared ‘code’ in ‘code-sharing’ refers to the flight number’s two-letter IATA designator. Each airline sells seats on a specific flight under its own airline designator and flight number as part of its schedule.

all the way from departure point to their ultimate destination, possibly a number of sectors or legs, later.

CODE-SHARING A codeshare agreement is an arrangement whereby an airline can sell seats under its own IATA identifier (or code) on another airline’s flight. Most major airlines have code-sharing partnerships with other airlines, and code-sharing is a key feature of airline alliances. The

Code-sharing has become widespread in the airline industry due to the creation of the three large alliances and has the following advantages: a common flight number is less confusing as it allows a passenger to book from point X to Z through a hub at point Y on just one airline, and with just one payment. For airlines, it provides a vast increase in routes served without actually having to fly to those places. Of particular appeal to airlines is that when a passenger flies on a code-sharing partner’s aircraft, the margin paid to the booking airline is pure profit.

For application to the African context with its continuing use of flag carriers, it is worth noting that code-sharing directly undermines the supposed benefits of having a flag carrier, as a state’s passengers could end up flying on a competitor’s aircraft. Also relevant to African operations is that buying a ticket on one airline and ending up flying on another airline (which may be perceived inferior or dangerous) is confusing and not transparent to passengers. 

Africa cannot even agree on renaming the Victoria Falls -FlightCom let alone forming airline alliances.

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BUSH PILOT HUGH PRYOR

FRANK

ABUKUTSA

AT HUWERA

Pilots are immensely privileged. Flying over the vast and intricate surfaces of the Earth gives us a view of our planet which is not available to ground-locked mortals.

The Amazing Wadi Douan in Yemen.

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Y

OU CANNOT HELP BUT BE impressed by how infinitesimally small is man when you view the planet he inhabits, particularly at night, against the rich tapestry of the universe.

We are minute little beings, clinging to a rippling mantle, floating on a sea of magma, spinning in an unfathomable void which is speckled with myriads of other clusters of stars and planets like our own.

The universal forces which propel our existence are so gargantuan that we are only now beginning to appreciate our own insignificance. It becomes more and more difficult to believe that we are indeed created in the image of God. I sometimes wish that I could buy a DVD of the geological history of the world. To be able to see how mountain ranges are forming and continents are drifting, of how ice caps ebb and flow like tides and seas become deserts, would be thrilling. These momentous events take too long for us to appreciate or comprehend in our short lifespans, but if I could catch a glimpse of that primeval turmoil, it would increase tenfold my ability to see into the future and to understand my relative unimportance in the grand design.

food menus appeared to have been inspired by those found in late eighteenth century French Revolutionary jails. Really the only saving grace of Camp Life was the entertaining nature of the inmates and the generous supply of alcohol. Things eventually got so bad that all the Pakistani labourers, the cable layers, the operators and the domestic staff, including our Pakistani cook who was blessed with the unlikely nomme de cuisine of William, went on strike. The Crew Chief, Renée, and his colleague Serge, immediately formed a crisis committee and unanimously volunteered Driss, the Moroccan explosives expert, Lazarek, the computer guru, and me, to take over the catering.

Our first job was to clean out the kitchen trailer, which was an experience in itself. Our labours must have seriously depleted the cockroach stocks of the Arabian subcontinent. It always fascinates me how you can be minding your own business in the remotest corner of the Rub al Khali (the Empty Quarter, as the deserts of Arabia are known), surrounded by hundreds of miles of nothingness and the flies will always find you.

Have you seen the passengers?

Sitting on the plateau in Yemen, five thousand feet above the plain which forms the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula, you gain an intimate glimpse of the titanic struggle which is broiling under your feet.

There is almost no vegetation. The geology is revealed as it happens, formation grinding against formation with no modesty, like naked mud-wrestlers.

It was before the first Gulf War, and James Bond was still up against the Soviet Empire. According to one senior opposition shadow Minister, Maggie Thatcher still had the biggest balls in the British Parliament and I was flying a Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter for a French seismic survey company in South Yemen and we had a camp on the top of that self same plateau.

The seismic survey company was famous for its toilet facilities. There weren’t any. The showers were only one better. That’s one between sixteen people. The

It once occurred to me that you would never be lost in the desert, if you could speak ‘Mouchoise’ (French for Fly language.) I distinctly remember being told, as a toddler, that flies only have a range of about two miles, maximum three.

Those ones in Arabia must have amazing ferry tanks installed, or maybe they are refuelling from camels en route…or possibly from the kitchens of remote seismic survey camps. We certainly had our share, anyway!

That first day of the strike, in my piloting capacity, I loaded three large cool-boxes into the back of the Pilatus and flew off to Aden, the then capital of what used to be South Yemen, to get the supplies. That took about three hours there, and three hours back. It was a brain-numbing trip which I used to make three times a week. The Pilatus is an unstable old thing and if you allow your concentration to drift for more than a couple of minutes, she falls over. Nodding off can be seriously damaging to your career if you don’t wake up before the ground comes through the windscreen.

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The Pilatus Porter PC6 carrying supplies happily into the remote desert.

There are few professions which require a person’s mind to be so totally concentrated for six hours in a day without a coffee break or toilet. I had found one of them. I still loved the old Pilatus Porter though.

Cantankerous she was…yes…but when the chips were down, she would get you home, out of the most intimidating situations.

When I got back from Aden, I parked the Porter between the tie downs and put her to bed. Her Pratt & Whitney PT-6 turbo-prop engine ticked contentedly as it cooled. We unloaded the aircraft and put everything in its proper place, in the growing dark, as the sun slipped quietly away, down behind the hills to the west.

The barbeque was all glowing cinders and hot weldmesh, just crying for thick, richly marinated fillet steaks. We butter-wrapped potatoes in cooking foil and threw them in the fire. Lazarek had thrown together a coleslaw salad with the inspired addition of sultanas and chopped mint. I had brought oranges and bananas back from Aden, with the frozen food. Beers suddenly appeared, to wash away the day’s dust and tensions and everybody relaxed into the warmth of a high desert evening.

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This happy state of affairs continued for over a week.

It couldn’t go on like that, of course. Our clients were getting too fat on this regime and so, suddenly, after ten days, i was instructed to go to Aden and pick up the new catering staff. We were effectively being relieved of our duties… in the nicest possible way, you understand. The Frogs have never been famous for their tact, have they!

I arrived in Aden, armed with the regulation cool boxes, and parked by our workshop/container. Tony, the engineer, greeted me and enquired about the health of the aircraft. As usual with the Pilatus Porter, there was nothing to report. Its legendary reliability was accepted like one of the laws of physics by the pilots and almost to the point of boredom by the engineers.

“Have you seen the passengers?” I asked.

“Yeah.” Tony replied, “You’ve got one ‘Khawaja’ (local lingo for ‘European’) and two Kenyan Africans.

One of them’s enormous.” Tony grinned. “Looks like a rugby player. If you want to meet them, they’re waiting in Domestic Departures.”

“I’ll catch them after I’ve done the flight plan.” I said,

“I’ll bet you were awesome on the rugby field!” I said, with some feeling.

“I wasn’t allowed to wear my spectacles when we played, so I couldn’t see the danger,” Frank laughed.

“So people tended to keep out of my way.”

SURNAME

FIRST NAME

LOCATION

TEL NO

E-MAIL

✗ ✗ ✗ ✗

Britz

Rudi

Wonderboom Airport

083 422 9882

rudiavmed@gmail.com

Church

Belinda

Valhalla

079 636 9860

churchbs@live.com

Du Plessis

Alexander

Athlone Park

031 904 7460

dex.duplessis@intercare.co.za

Erasmus

Philip

Benoni

011 849 6512

pdceras-ass@mweb.co.za

Govender

Deena

Umhlanga Rocks

031 566 2066/7 deena@drdg.co.za

✗ ✗

Ingham

Kenneth

Midrand

011 315 5817

kaingham@hotmail.com

✗ ✗

Marais

Eugene

Mossel Bay

044 693 1470

eugene.marais@medicross.co.za

✗ ✗

Opperman

Chris

Pretoria Lynnwood

012 368 8800

chris.opperman@intercare.co.za

Schutz

Ernest

Germiston

011 825 5300

schutzfm@iafrica.com

Tenzer

Stan

Rand Airport & JHB CBD

083 679 0777

stant@global.co.za

✗ ✗ ✗

Toerien

Hendrik

White River, Nelspruit

013 751 3848

hctoerien@viamediswitch.co.za

✗ ✗ ✗

Van Der Merwe

Johann

Stellenbosch

021 887 0305

johann.vdmerwe@medicross.co.za

Van Niekerk

Willem

Benoni

011 421 9771

http://willemvanniekerk.co.za

Other countries

AME Doctors Listing

EASA registered

“Frank is going to change your life,” said Tony, encouragingly. “He’s your new Camp Boss.” 

FAA registered

Ali, the Air Traffic Controller, doubled as a Briefing Officer, and checked and accepted my flight plan.

He asked me to take a letter to his brother who was a surveyor with our seismic team. Ali had a problem making ends meet on a salary which had not been reviewed since the British had left, twenty years previously and so I was fairly confident what request was contained in the letter. I was embarrassed to calculate that my pay-check was approximately twenty times greater than Ali’s although I had responsibility for a maximum of ten passengers where he was ensuring the safety of hundreds. Neither he nor Nasir allowed this obvious discrepancy to get in the way of our friendship, however, and I did what I could to try and redress the balance in kind, by satisfying their very modest requirements whenever I came back from taking leave.

Off-site Specialist tests

“Sounds good. See you in a minute.”

On site Specialist tests

“Full mains should be OK. We’ve just received twenty thousand litres in the camp.”

Senior Class 1, 2, 3, 4

Tony nodded, “What do you need?”

Tony was right about the rugby player. He was seriously massive. He wore a pair of spectacles which were so thick that I could hardly see his eyes from my reduced elevation. This is Frank,” said Tony with the proud flourish of a circus ring master. “Ex Kenya Rugby International and one of the biggest people I know!” An enormous black hand reached down and grasped mine with surprising care. “I have heard a lot about you. I hope it is not all true!” The great paw moved up and down as if conducting the resonant music of his words. “But anyway, it is a pleasure to meet you.” The voice was so deep and distant that I was half expecting the big lips to move a couple of seconds before the sound arrived.

Regular Class 2, 3, 4

“Could I ask you to handle the refuelling?”

✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗

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AIRLINE OPS MIKE GOUGH

A few weeks ago, 27 March , marked the 44th anniversary of what is still the world’s worst aviation disaster – the collision of two Boeing 747s at Tenerife Airport, Spain.

Having Pilot Monitoring is invaluable for trapping mistakes.

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W

ORST AS IN TWO ASPECTS: The highest single death toll for any aircraft accident, as well as the worst in human behaviour in the flight deck that resulted in this mega tragedy.

Thankfully, no one has yet beaten the total 583 fatalities in a single accident, and with the measures developed in terms of human factors as a direct result of this accident, we have been able to steadily and progressively train ourselves away from our occasional bizarre behaviour as humans.

As most of us are well familiar with the events that led up to this disaster, I’ll summarise just how many holes in multiple pieces of cheese had to line up for everything to go so perfectly wrong.

building, injuring eight people, but with a telephonic threat of another device having been planted. The airport was duly closed and flights diverted to Los Rodeos airport in Tenerife.

The Pan Am flight requested to hold until clearance could be obtained, as they had in excess of two hours additional fuel (those were the days, in terms of nonoptimised fuel planning), but ATC refused this request and sent them off to Tenerife.

The severely congested Los Rodeos airport had to contend with aircraft way bigger than they were used to, as well as drifting, heavy fog. Captain van Zanten, with the intention to complete the mission within the new Flight and Duty scheme, had been pushing for refuelling and clearance to depart, which, the moment Grand Canaria was declared safe, he obtained and was the first to taxi to the departure end of the single runway.

the CAA feel it is appropriate to criminalise and penalise errors

Starting at the end, the catastrophic decision of Captain Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten of the KLM Boeing 747 ‘Rijn’, to commence their takeoff without ATC clearance, had its own set of surrounding factors. This pilot was very much the ultimate company man, being head of training and ironically, head of the safety department. He was also under pressure to implement the then very new flight and duty plan, aimed at reducing fatigue in long-haul crew members, and by extension, reduce incidents and accidents.

The other aircraft, a Pan Am Boeing 747 ‘Clipper Victor’, happened to be the same aircraft that did the world’s first ever commercial 747 flight in January 1970. Eight months after this inaugural flight, it became the first (and only) B747 to be hijacked, and landed in Havana, Cuba.

Seven years after those events, it was inbound to the Grand Canaria Airport in the Canary Islands from New York, while the KLM machine was inbound from Amsterdam, on a holiday charter flight.

As both aircraft descended into Grand Canaria, a local terrorist group detonated a bomb in the terminal

The Pan Am Clipper taxied behind them, at 3 knots (according to the surviving First Officer Bragg) due to the extremely dense fog. As the KLM Boeing completed their line up on the runway, the Pan Am aircraft was still painfully slowly backtracking. A triple radio transmission blocked the crucial call from ATC to KLM to hold their position, while Captain van Zanten advanced the thrust levers for takeoff. Both the First Officer and Flight Engineer’s concerned queries of the validity of the takeoff clearance was brushed off by the Captain with the words “Check Thrust”, an instruction to the engineer to set the correct takeoff thrust. The engineer realised that the Pan American was still on the runway and again asked the Captain if they were clear, to which he emphatically responded “Oh yes”.

All 249 souls on board the KLM aircraft perished (including 52 children), and only 61 of the 380 persons on board the Pan Am 747 survived, as the two aircraft collided.

This was mostly due to one man’s mission fixation, and the inadequate response of his crew, to challenge

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the might of the uber Captain. However, the multitude of contributing factors demanded the attention of flight safety specialists around the world.

Two years later, in 1979, NASA held a workshop on a new-fangled concept that was referred to as Cockpit Resource Management, which focused on human factors in aviation accidents, and specifically the value of clear communications.

This morphed into Crew Resource Management, as the variables in many instances extended beyond the cockpit.

once one of the world’s oldest legacy airlines (on similar B747 Classic aircraft that were involved), and immediately realised what an incredibly powerful safety tool this is – for those who choose to implement the lessons in the flight deck.

the awareness of a nearsignificant error did sink In 1981, United Airlines in the US was the first airline in the into the left world to introduce mandatory CRM training for their flight seat occupant deck crews. It was only in 2006, through IATA initiatives, that CRM became mandatory training globally.

I did my first CRM course in early 1998, six months and several long range flights after joining what was

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In 2010, I recall taxying out at night in Hong Kong for a flight to Johannesburg with one of our more ‘old school’ captains, who had recently returned from a contract with an Asian carrier. It was the Captain’s sector, and he was Pilot Flying. Taxi clearances at these large, busy airports can be complicated at the best of times and careful attention to clearances and read backs is essential.

Observing an imminent error in turning onto the wrong taxi way, I immediately pointed it out, and my concerns were dismissed with “I write things down you know”.

Prof Philipe Salazar's book is an excellent guide to planning a flight under SA's complex air law requirments.

Threat and error management is another great differentiator between airline and GA ops.

So do I, but maybe one of us wrote it down wrong…

A quick call from me to the ground controller to confirm the clearance showed the error of the Captain’s thinking, but accepting this was not to be, as he barked (on frequency!) for the controllers to stop changing their minds…to a brief moment of silence.

Despite not ‘loosing face’, the mood did soften on the flight deck, as the awareness of a near-significant error did sink into the left seat occupant, and a more ‘cooperative’ mood prevailed for the 13 hour flight back home.

The strides towards a less-steep cockpit gradient over the years has been significant, and now that we are on the 6th Generation of CRM training, we have accepted that even CRM in itself has issues.

It is interesting to note that it was only around six years ago that the concept of error management came to light. It’s taken us that long to realise that errors are inevitable, and as important as it is to avoid errors, we have to be able to trap and mitigate the consequences of this. We will continue to err as humans, so we need to learn to cope with that and recover the situation.

This was the birth of Just Culture, which encouraged the reporting of errors and mistakes to add to our data base of knowledge.

Certain players in the industry (our CAA in South Africa, for example), feel it is appropriate to criminalise and penalise errors. How far in the Dark Ages are we with this approach to aviation safety? It is no wonder that this thinking may well be a contributory factor in the 28 aircraft accidents we have had this year so far in this country.

This brings me to the point of this article. For so many years, we have been developing methods to instil a practical practice of human factor mitigation in the professional cockpit. The lack of mandatory Single Crew CRM training in the General Aviation world is the seed that has been sown over time, with the grim harvest which we now reap.

As I find myself full time back in the GA environment, the gulf that exists between these two worlds is huge, and without astute and competent leadership, we will only watch that tally increase. 

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FACE TO FACE

E C A F O T FA C E Despite its name sounding Australian, Air Austral is the national airline of Réunion Island. Based at the Roland Garros Airport in the French overseas department of Réunion, it operates scheduled services from Réunion to France, South Africa, Thailand, India and a number of destinations in the Indian Ocean.

Air Austral CEO Marie-Joseph Male.

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This niche carrier surprised many when it ordered two new Airbus A380s, which many considered an over-reach. And indeed it was. In April 2012, founder and CEO Gérard Ethève was replaced by Marie-Joseph Malé following the financial difficulties caused by the consequences of unwise business decisions compounded by high fuel prices. The A380s were cancelled and the Boeing 777 fleet reduced. Ironically, the airline also operates Boeing 787s and the Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engine grounding resulted in its wet leasing an A380 in 2018.

G

UY LEITCH CAUGHT UP with MarieJoseph Malé at the AASA conference which he hosted in Reunion.

GL: Given the importance of Reunion as a tourist destination and as a part of France, how big is the contribution your airline makes to the Reunion economy?

MJM: We are the third largest private employee in Reunion and we make tourism happen in partnership with the other airlines such as Air France. But we are the only ones based in Reunion, so our contribution is absolutely critical.

GL: The question is often asked: What’s stopping African airlines: Can you outline the limitations Air Austral faces?

MJM: One of the challenges we face is the fully liberalised air travel context in Europe. This means that we have five competitors just on the Reunion – Paris route. It is uncommon to see that much competition on a single route.

MJM: Yes, we codeshare with Kenyan and with Air France and are looking to expand our codeshares.

GL: Are you part of any Alliance?

MJM: We are part of a small Alliance called the Vanilla Alliance. This includes Air Seychelles and Air Mauritius and Madagascar and ourselves, but we are not part of any of the big three alliances.

GL: Your route structure has to feed from Paris because you can’t really feed it from the Reunion side?

MJM: We also feed from the Reunion side. We have the best network in the Indian Ocean. We fly to eight points in Madagascar and the Comoros Islands. We have three or four flights a day to Mauritius. We fly to the Seychelles and to Mayotte and Rodrigues. So we have a good network in the Indian Ocean.

GL: As a French carrier do you find government bureaucracy difficult to overcome?

All French carriers have high costs

The other challenge we face is costs. All French carriers have high costs in terms of the social and fiscal costs. For example, when you look at the salaries and the other costs in Mauritius, they are just 8% of the salaries we are paying to the government in France. In general, we have another 50% costs, which makes a huge difference.

GL: Where do you usually fly to in Africa and what are your post Covid expansion plans?

MJM: We currently fly to Johannesburg and to Mayotte. We are looking at expanding into Nairobi.

GL: Do you codeshare with other airlines – for instance Kenyan?

MJM: In the early days we found it difficult, but as a French airline we have the benefits of France behind us. We have the full European power in our negotiations.

GL: Who owns Air Austral?

MJM: Air Austral is 98% owned by a Society of which the local government is a majority. It’s not exactly government-owned but it was privately owned to 2008 and now a minority shareholder in the form of our local government came up with the money to save the airline.

GL: Do you have a good working relationship with your shareholder or do they from time to time try and dictate how you should operate?

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Air Austral primarily links Reunion Island to France.

An Air Austral Boeing 777-300 suits the high capacity tourist market.

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MJM: We have an excellent relationship with our shareholder.

GL: Are you looking at Nairobi because you need a better hub?

GL: What are your expansion plans? Are you looking to obtain Fourth, Fifth and higher freedom rights across Africa and elsewhere?

MJM: Yes we would like to see a west African hub develop.

MJM: Yes, what we are achieving is to develop a regional network. We want to in fact increase frequencies to Johannesburg – [pre Covid] we had three frequencies per week.

At the same time we are trying to develop more incoming traffic from South Africa, but that takes time. We are looking at developing ecotourism.

we would like to see a west African hub develop

We will be discussing with South Africa the possibilities of codeshare beyond South Africa. For me Southern Africa is something that we must expand into. And we hope that Kenya will be a good partner for us.

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GL: What about your plans for expanding further east? Can you compete against the Gulf-3?

15:35

MJM: As far as the east is concerned, we will be starting operations with our partner Air Mayotte, direct to places like Guangzhou. It would be convenient if we could build our expansion plans to the east route through a hub in Nairobi.

We will be quite prudent in our route development and if we can go via a hub like Nairobi and share the route, it will be an all-round advantage.

GL: What about your fleet expansion plans?

MJM: I think that for the time being we are okay.

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29

DEFENCE DARREN OLIVIER

Loyal wingmen and AI and optionally crewed cockpit will be key abilities.

A white label missile being tested on a Hawk of SAAF 85 CFS Squadron 30

FlightCom Magazine

The race to develop the sixth-generation successors to today’s fifth-generation fighter aircraft has begun in earnest with at least seven international programmes going at full pace even as some countries have yet to fully induct fifth-generation aircraft like the F-35, J-20, and Su-57 into service.

PART OF THIS IS BECAUSE timelines for aircraft development are punishing, as long lead times mean that if air forces want to field these new types from 2030 to 2040 they need to scale up development now.

But there’s more to it. There’s a real belief, and optimism, that recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and computer-aided and automated design, engineering, and manufacturing can combine to create changes that are more revolutionary than evolutionary.

So what does sixth-generation actually mean in this context, and how does it differ from fifth-generation?

Well, like any attempt to force the messy real world into neat and well-defined labels, nobody fully agrees on its meaning, what its defining characteristics are, and whether certain aircraft ‘deserve’ to be classed under it. We have to muddle along with what amounts to a general consensus on which most agree, and which centres around the following key factors:

warfare systems, and directed energy defensive countermeasures.

• Open architecture for the rapid integration and rolling out of updated capabilities and software.

• On-board AI capable of both assisting the pilot with decision-making like target recognition and optimal air combat strategies and conducting those tasks independently during autonomous uncrewed missions.

• A system-of-systems approach, in which the core aircraft is merely one element of a system that includes uncrewed remote payload carriers (‘loyal wingmen’) and decoys, • An extremely high bandwidth low latency ‘combat cloud’ data network to allow for co-operative engagement, sensor fusion and processing workload sharing between aircraft and for the core aircraft to act as a command and control node for swarms of uncrewed supporting assets. This also enables a fully distributed approach to electronic warfare.

An optionally piloted core aircraft

• An optionally piloted core aircraft making heavy use of low-observable technology.

• New generation engines, likely variable or adaptive cycle, which will be both higher performing and more efficient than current generation fighter aircraft as a result of being able to dynamically vary the bypass ratio. They’re also being designed to provide much more reserve power in order to operate longer-ranged sensors, electronic

• Fully virtual cockpits with all avionics information displayed on a pilot’s helmet-mounted display.

Individually, some of these capabilities already exist in some fifth-generation aircraft, and some are even being trialled in 4.5 generation aircraft like the Typhoon and

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Rafale, but the entire integrated approach can’t be achieved without all-new clean sheet designs.

That’s if it all works, of course. Experience shows that it’s never that simple and that many of the proposed features and enhancements of each new generation of aircraft are quietly dropped by the time it enters production. However even if we assume some lack of success in meeting these ambitious targets it’s obvious that sixth-generation aircraft and their associated systems are going to be incredibly capable and represent a big jump over what’s presently in service.

It’s also clear that whoever fails to develop and field these new systems in significant numbers is going to be at a huge disadvantage in this new era of global military competition. Against a country fielding a full sixth-generation air combat capability, with substantial numbers of autonomous and semiautonomous swarming payload-carrying drones and decoys, the traditional approach just isn’t going to work for very long. They’d have both much better situational awareness and be able to expend uncrewed but smart drones at a rate higher than others can sustain losses of crewed fighters.

The mockup of the 6th Gen Tempest for the RAF in 2018.

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As of writing, the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, China, Russia, India, and Japan all have or are part of active sixthgeneration development programmes.

The United States appears to be furthest ahead with the first of its two programmes, Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD), after the US Air Force announced in September 2020 that a demonstrator of some sort had already flown. However no details were provided about what that demonstrator actually is or entails, so it’s possible it may be a technology development aircraft for one or more of NGAD’s new technologies rather than a prototype for the new core fighter.

NGAD’s version of the remote carrier/loyal wingman concept is known as Skyborg, with contracts for flying prototypes awarded to Boeing, General Atomics and Kratos. Boeing will likely supply its Airpower Teaming System, under development for the Royal Australian Air Force’s Loyal Wingman programme, and Kratos is expected to supply a variant of its XQ-58 Valkyrie developed for an early US Air Force Research Laboratory programme.

The US Air Force has been spending serious

development time and money on capacity data link networks for years now, with the intention of creating smart data clouds linking aircraft, remote payload carriers, and munitions without the need for specialised communications aircraft. For instance the service’s imaginatively named ‘Golden Horde’ programme, which recently underwent a series of live tests, is designed to allow smart bombs and missiles to communicate with each other and their launch aircraft in order to intelligently swarm, autonomously select targets, and attack them in the most efficient way.

One of the scenarios being developed is for bombs to intelligently analyse the results of impacts from weapons released before them to reconfigure in flight to either attack the same targets from alternative angles (if the first hit wasn’t successful) or shift to other targets.

Development of adaptive cycle engines is also continuing at pace via two projects, the nearerterm Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP) (for which companies like GE have already developed designs like the XA100) and the follow-on Air Dominance Adaptive Propulsion Technology (ADAPT). These are expected to produce double-digit improvements in thrust, about 25% reductions in fuel consumption, and ultimately megawatts of excess electrical power for onboard systems.

details have emerged than for the US Air Force’s NGAD, though.

The UK, Italy, and Sweden are collaborating on the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) programme, though for now only the UK and Italy are partnering on the core next-generation aircraft, called Tempest.

Like other sixth-generation programmes, Tempest is planned to be a low observability optionally piloted fighter aircraft with adaptive cycle engines producing an ‘unprecedented’ level of electrical power, a virtual cockpit, and a high capacity secure data network for command and control of remote carriers and drone swarms, communications, and other co-operative engagement scenarios. While BAE Systems, the project’s prime contractor, has not yet revealed its plans for remote payload carriers, both it and the RAF have made it clear that those are a non-negotiable element of FCAS. In its latest defence policy review, the ‘Defence in a Competitive Age’ command paper released earlier in 2021, the UK government announced that it would be committing £2 billion to the project, which is expected to enter service by 2040, saying the following:

the traditional approach just isn’t going to work

Finally the NGAD programme is being run using the ‘Digital Century’ approach, now called ‘eSeries’, of relying on the latest generation computer aided design, engineering, and manufacturing in order to reduce the time of development and the cost of fielding the new type. This approach was already pioneered on the US Air Force’s new trainer, the T-7A Red Hawk, which has gone from first flight to full-scale jigless production in just five years.

The US Navy has its own NGAD programme, formerly known as F/A-XX, but is reportedly working with the US Air Force to figure out where both programmes can be joined in order to share costs and technologies even though they may result in different aircraft more optimised for each service’s goals. Far fewer specific

FCAS will deliver an innovative mix of crewed, uncrewed and autonomous platforms including swarming drones. This will deliver an advanced combat air system capable of fighting in the most hostile environments. The development of novel technologies, and a step change in how we use simulators for mission rehearsal and training, will enable the Royal Air Force to be among the most technologically innovative, productive and lethal air forces in the world.

FCAS is following a relatively risky development process that leans heavily on computer-aided design in order to leave the final configuration open for as long as possible while instead proving and reducing risk on all the supporting technologies first. For this reason the FCAS project team expect to fly their first demonstrator of their core aircraft, Tempest, much

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later than competing projects but hope that they’ll gain more flexibility and a better final product as a result.

While Sweden has yet to formally join the Tempest portion of FCAS, it hasn’t ruled out doing so in the next few months. Or it may opt for a local design, like it did with the Gripen, that nonetheless incorporates and interfaces with the other FCAS elements.

France, Germany, and Spain are in turn collaborating on their own programme, also confusingly known as Future Combat Air System (FCAS), so many observers prefer to use the French acronym of SCAF for Système de combat aérien du futur instead.

Dassault is the prime contractor for the core aircraft, known as the New Generation Fighter (NGF), with Airbus taking the lead in the development of remote payload carriers and other supporting elements of the programme. Mock ups of both the NGF and a remote carrier design were exhibited at the 2019 Paris Air Show, though neither were detailed. A high-capacity co-operative engagement data link, known by its French name of tenue de situation multi plateformes (TSMPF), will enable communications, data sharing, sensor fusion, and similar capabilities between aircraft and platforms.

Safran and MTU have been selected to provide a new adaptive cycle thrust vectoring engine for the NGF, which will include cutting-edge materials in order to achieve a turbine temperature of 1 825ºC, substantially

higher than current generation engines, while still being lighter, more fuel efficient, more powerful, and more compact.

At first there was consternation that SCAF might never get off the ground, owing to a series of highprofile public disputes between France and Germany on work share and intellectual property ownership, but these were finally resolved in April 2021. Under current schedules, a flying prototype is expected before 2030 in order to allow for an in-service date of around 2040.

Japan’s programme, F-X, anticipates a first flight in around 2028 and an in-service date of 2035, with full-scale production kicking off in 2031. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is the prime contractor, largely as a result of its success with its X-2 demonstrator and after the Japanese government in March 2020 rejected a series of proposed designs from BAE Systems, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin, although there are still plans to partner with UK or US companies for part of the programme.

The F-X is expected to be quite large, bigger than the F-22 and most other similar aircraft, as the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) has opted to prioritise range and payload over agility. Oddly though, while the planned IHI Corporation XF9 engine is likely to be exceptionally light weight and powerful, while also incorporating thrust vectoring, it does not seem that

Full scale mock-up of the FCAS at the Paris Air Show 2019 with its smaller, unmanned loyal wingman.

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FlightCom Magazine

Japan intends to field an adaptive cycle version of the engine.

Russia is developing the Mikoyan PAK DP, intended to complement and possibly replace the fifth generation Sukhoi Su-57 now entering service, but as yet it remains largely a paper concept without much active progress or requirements clarity. It’s also clear from statements by Russian officials that for now they see it more as a high-speed, high-altitude interceptor capable of speeds of Mach 3-Mach 4 at altitudes above 12 000 metres, rather than an all-round aircraft.

And while Russia has experience in developing remote carriers, and has even worked on some aspects of co-operative teaming between them and crewed fighter aircraft, it does not yet appear to have created an integrated programme around PAK DP to incorporate the technology.

India announced in October 2020 that it intends to develop a sixth-generation follow on from its fifth-generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), though it’s unclear whether they intend this as a whole new programme or whether it’s the

proposed Mark II variant of that aircraft. According to the Indian Air Force, the new aircraft is intended to have “directed energy weapons, smart wingman concept, optionally manned combat platforms, swarm drones, hypersonic weapons”, and other elements, though no specific details have been released.

Finally, China announced in 2019 that it had started its own sixth-generation fighter aircraft programme to follow on from its fifth-generation J-20, which entered service in 2017, but thus far it has revealed few details other than that the new platform will be optionally piloted and will incorporate a new generation engine.

It also plans to field the new type by around 2040, however, so as to keep up with the US and Europe.

All in all, the next few years should be interesting as more details emerge about sixth-generation systems and we see which elements have survived their brush with reality and which have become genuine advances that produce a qualitative edge. Whatever happens though it’s likely that air warfare will be changed forever. 

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BACKPAGE DIR DIRECT ECTORY ORY A1A Flight Examiner (Loutzavia) Jannie Loutzis 012 567 6775 / 082 416 4069 jannie@loutzavia.co.za www.loutzavia.co.za Adventure Air Lande Milne 012 543 3196 / Cell: 066 4727 848 l.milne@venture-sa.co.za www.ventureglobal.biz

Alpha One Aviation Opelo 082 301 9977 on@alphaoneaviation.co.za www.alphaoneaviation.co.za

Alpi Aviation SA Dale De Klerk 082 556 3592 dale@alpiaviation.co.za www.alpiaviation.co.za

AES (Cape Town) Erwin Erasmus 082 494 3722 erwin@aeroelectrical.co.za www.aeroelectrical.co.za

Apco (Ptyd) Ltd Tony/Henk + 27 12 543 0775 apcosupport@mweb.co.za www.apcosa.co.za

AES (Johannesburg) Danie van Wyk 011 701 3200 office@aeroelectrical.co.za www.aeroelectrical.co.za

Aref Avionics Hannes Roodt 082 462 2724 arefavionics@border.co.za

Comporob Composite Repair & Manufacture Felix Robertson 072 940 4447 083 265 3602 comporob@lantic.net www.comporob.co.za Corporate-Aviators/Affordable Jet Sales Mike Helm 082 442 6239 corporate-aviators@iafrica.com www.corporate-aviators.com C. W. Price & Co Kelvin L. Price 011 805 4720 cwp@cwprice.co.za www.cwprice.co.za

Dart Aeronautical Jaco Kelly 011 827 8204 dartaero@mweb.co.za

Atlas Aviation Lubricants Aerocore Steve Cloete Dart Aircraft Electrical Jacques Podde 011 917 4220 Mathew Joubert 082 565 2330 Fax: 011 917 2100 011 827 0371 jacques@aerocore.co.za Sales.aviation@atlasoil.co.za Dartaircraftelectrical@gmail.com www.aerocore.co.za www.atlasoil.africa www.dartaero.co.za

Aero Engineering & PowerPlant ATNS DJA Aviation Insurance Andre Labuschagne Percy Morokane 011 463 5550 012 543 0948 011 607 1234 0800Flying aeroeng@iafrica.com percymo@atns.co.za mail@dja-aviation.co.za

www.atns.com www.dja-aviation.co.za Aero Services (Pty) Ltd Chris Scott Aviation Direct Dynamic Propellers 011 395 3587 Andrea Antel Andries Visser chris@aeroservices.co.za 011 465 2669 011 824 5057 www.aeroservices.co.za info@aviationdirect.co.za 082 445 4496

www.aviationdirect.co.za andries@dynamicpropeller.co.za Aeronav Academy www.dynamicpropellers.co.za Donald O’Connor BAC Aviation AMO 115 011 701 3862 Micky Joss Eagle Aviation Helicopter Division info@aeronav.co.za 035 797 3610 Tamryn van Staden www.aeronav.co.za monicad@bacmaintenance.co.za 082 657 6414

tamryn@eaglehelicopter.co.za Aeronautical Aviation Blackhawk Africa www.eaglehelicopter.co.za Clinton Carroll Cisca de Lange

011 659 1033 / 083 459 6279 083 514 8532 Eagle Flight Academy clinton@aeronautical.co.za cisca@blackhawk.aero Mr D. J. Lubbe www.aeronautical.co.za www.blackhawk.aero 082 557 6429 training@eagleflight.co.za Aerotric (Pty) Ltd Blue Chip Flight School www.eagleflight.co.za Richard Small Henk Kraaij 083 488 4535 012 543 3050 Elite Aviation Academy aerotric@aol.com bluechip@bluechip-avia.co.za Jacques Podde www.bluechipflightschool.co.za 082 565 2330 Aircraft Assembly and Upholstery Centre info@eliteaa.co.za Tony/Siggi Bailes Border Aviation Club & Flight School www.eliteaa.co.za 082 552 6467 Liz Gous

anthony@rvaircraft.co.za 043 736 6181 Enstrom/MD Helicopters www.rvaircraft.co.za admin@borderaviation.co.za Andrew Widdall

www.borderaviation.co.za 011 397 6260 Aircraft Finance Corporation

aerosa@safomar.co.za Jaco Pietersen Breytech Aviation cc www.safomar.co.za +27 [0]82 672 2262 012 567 3139 jaco@airfincorp.co.za Willie Breytenbach Era Flug Flight Training www.airfincorp.co.za admin@breytech.co.za Pierre Le Riche 021 934 7431 Aircraft General Spares Bundu Aviation info@era-flug.com Eric or Hayley Phillip Cronje www.era-flug.com 084 587 6414 or 067 154 2147 083 485 2427 eric@acgs.co.za or hayley@acgs.co.za info@bunduaviation.co.za Execujet Africa www.acgs.co.za www.bunduaviation.co.za 011 516 2300 enquiries@execujet.co.za Aircraft Maintenance @ Work Celeste Sani Pak & Inflight Products www.execujet.com Opelo / Frik Steve Harris 012 567 3443 011 452 2456 Federal Air frik@aviationatwork.co.za_ admin@chemline.co.za Nick Lloyd-Roberts opelonke@aviationatwork.co.za www.chemline.co.za 011 395 9000 shuttle@fedair.com Aircraft Maintenance International Cape Aircraft Interiors www.fedair.com Pine Pienaar Sarel Schutte 083 305 0605 021 934 9499 Ferry Flights int.inc. gm@aminternational.co.za michael@wcaeromarine.co.za Michael (Mick) Schittenhelm www.zscai.co.za 082 442 6239 Aircraft Maintenance International ferryflights@ferry-flights.com Wonderboom Cape Town Flying Club www.ferry-flights.com Thomas Nel Beverley Combrink 082 444 7996 021 934 0257 / 082 821 9013 Fireblade Aviation admin@aminternational.co.za info@capetownflyingclub.co.za 010 595 3920 www.@capetownflyingclub.co.za info@firebladeaviation.com Air Line Pilots’ Association

www.firebladeaviation.com Sonia Ferreira Capital Air 011 394 5310 Micaella Vinagre Flight Training College alpagm@iafrica.com 011 827 0335 Cornell Morton www.alpa.co.za micaella@capitalairsa.com 044 876 9055

www.capitalairsa.com ftc@flighttrainning.co.za Airshift Aircraft Sales

www.flighttraining.co.za Eugene du Plessis Century Avionics cc

082 800 3094 Carin van Zyl Flight Training Services eugene@airshift.co.za 011 701 3244 Amanda Pearce www.airshift.co.za sales@centuryavionics.co.za 011 805 9015/6 www.centuryavionics.co.za amanda@fts.co.za Airvan Africa www.fts.co.za Patrick Hanly Chemetall

082 565 8864 Wayne Claassens Fly Jetstream Aviation airvan@border.co.za 011 914 2500 Henk Kraaij www.airvan.co.za wayne.claassens@basf.com 083 279 7853 www.chemetall.com charter@flyjetstream.co.za Algoa Flying Club www.flyjetstream.co.za Sharon Mugridge Chem-Line Aviation & Celeste Products 041 581 3274 Steve Harris info@algoafc.co.za 011 452 2456 www.algoafc.co.za sales@chemline.co.za www.chemline.co.za

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Flying Frontiers Craig Lang 082 459 0760 CraigL@fairfield.co.za www.flyingfrontiers.com Flying Unlimited Flight School (Pty) Ltd Riaan Struwig 082 653 7504 / 086 770 8376 riaan@ppg.co.za www.ppg.co.za Foster Aero International Dudley Foster 011 659 2533 info@fosteraero.co.za www.fosteraero.co.za

Gemair Andries Venter 011 701 2653 / 082 905 5760 andries@gemair.co.za GIB Aviation Insurance Brokers Richard Turner 011 483 1212 aviation@gib.co.za www.gib.co.za Gryphon Flight Academy Jeffrey Von Holdt 011 701 2600 info@gryphonflight.co.za www.gryphonflight.co.za

Guardian Air 011 701 3011 082 521 2394 ops@guardianair.co.za www.guardianair.co.za

Heli-Afrique cc Tino Conceicao 083 458 2172 tino.conceicao@heli-afrique.co.za

Henley Air Andre Coetzee 011 827 5503 andre@henleyair.co.za www.henleyair.co.za Hover Dynamics Phillip Cope 074 231 2964 info@hover.co.za www.hover.co.za Indigo Helicopters Gerhard Kleynhans 082 927 4031 / 086 528 4234 veroeschka@indigohelicopters.co.za www.indigohelicopters.co.za IndigoSat South Africa - Aircraft Tracking Gareth Willers 08600 22 121 sales@indigosat.co.za www.indigosat.co.za

Integrated Avionic Solutions Gert van Niekerk 082 831 5032 gert@iasafrica.co.za www.iasafrica.co.za International Flight Clearances Steve Wright 076 983 1089 (24 Hrs) flightops@flyifc.co.za www.flyifc.co.za Investment Aircraft Quinton Warne 082 806 5193 aviation@lantic.net www.investmentaircraft.com Jabiru Aircraft Len Alford 044 876 9991 / 044 876 9993 info@jabiru.co.za www.jabiru.co.za Jim Davis Books Jim Davis 072 188 6484 jim@border.co.za www.jimdavis.co.za

Joc Air T/A The Propeller Shop Aiden O’Mahony 011 701 3114 jocprop@iafrica.com Kishugu Aviation +27 13 741 6400 comms@kishugu.com www.kishugu.com/kishugu-aviation

Kit Planes for Africa Stefan Coetzee 013 793 7013 info@saplanes.co.za www.saplanes.co.za

MS Aviation Gary Templeton 082 563 9639 gary.templeton@msaviation.co.za www.msaviation.co.za

Kzn Aviation (Pty) Ltd Melanie Jordaan 031 564 6215 mel@kznaviation.co.za www.kznaviation.co.za

Skyhorse Aviation Ryan Louw 012 809 3571 info@skyhorse.co.za www.skyhorse.co.za

United Flight Support Clinton Moodley/Jonathan Wolpe 076 813 7754 / 011 788 0813 ops@unitedflightsupported.com www.unitedflightsupport.com

North East Avionics Keith Robertson +27 13 741 2986 keith@northeastavionics.co.za deborah@northeastavionics.co.za www.northeastavionics.co.za Landing Eyes Gavin Brown Orsmond Aviation 031 202 5703 058 303 5261 info@landingeyes.co.za info@orsmondaviation.co.za www.landingeyes.com www.orsmondaviation.co.za

Lanseria Aircraft Interiors Owenair (Pty) Ltd Francois Denton Clive Skinner 011 659 1962 / 076 810 9751 082 923 9580 francois@aircraftcompletions.co.za clive.skinner@owenair.co.za www.owenwair.co.za Lanseria International Airport Mike Christoph Pacair 011 367 0300 Wayne Bond mikec@lanseria.co.za 033 386 6027 www.lanseria.co.za pacair@telkomsa.net

Skyworx Aviation Kevin Hopper kevin@skyworx.co.za www.skyworxaviation.co.za

Legend Sky 083 860 5225 / 086 600 7285 info@legendssky.co.za www.legendsky.co.za

PFERD-South Africa (Pty) Ltd Hannes Nortman 011 230 4000 hannes.nortman@pferd.co.za www.pferd.com

Southern Energy Company (Pty) Ltd Elke Bertram +264 8114 29958 johnnym@sec.com.na www.sec.com.na

Litson & Associates (Pty) Ltd OGP, BARS, Resources Auditing & Aviation Training karen.litson@litson.co.za Phone: 27 (0) 21 8517187 www.litson.co.za

Pipistrel Kobus Nel 083 231 4296 kobus@pipistrelsa.co.za www.pipistrelsa.co.za

Southern Rotorcraft cc Mr Reg Denysschen Tel no: 0219350980 sasales@rotors-r-us.com www.rotors-r-us.com

Plane Maintenance Facility Johan 083 300 3619 pmf@myconnection.co.za

Sport Plane Builders Pierre Van Der Walt 083 361 3181 pmvdwalt@mweb.co.za

Precision Aviation Services Marnix Hulleman 012 543 0371 marnix@pasaviation.co.za www.pasaviation.co.za

PSG Aviation Reon Wiese 0861 284 284 reon.wiese@psg.co.za www.psg aviation.co.za

Starlite Aero Sales Klara Fouché +27 83 324 8530 / +27 31 571 6600 klaraf@starliteaviation.com www.starliteaviation.com

Rainbow SkyReach (Pty) Ltd Mike Gill 011 817 2298 Mike@fly-skyreach.com www.fly-skyreach.com

Rand Airport Stuart Coetzee 011 827 8884 stuart@randairport.co.za www.randairport.co.za

Robin Coss Aviation Robin Coss 021 934 7498 info@cossaviation.com www.cossaviation.co.za

Starlite Aviation Training Academy Durban: +27 31 571 6600 Mossel Bay: +27 44 692 0006 train@starliteaviation.com www.starliteaviation.com

Litson & Associates Risk Management Services (Pty) Ltd. eSMS-S/eTENDER/ eREPORT/Advisory Services karen.litson@litson.co.za Phone: 27 (0) 8517187 www.litson.co.za Loutzavia Aircraft Sales Henry Miles 082 966 0911 henry@loutzavia.co.za www.loutzavia.co.za

Loutzavia Flight Training Gerhardt Botha 012 567 6775 ops@loutzavia.co.za www.loutzavia.co.za Loutzavia-Pilots and Planes Maria Loutzis 012 567 6775 maria@loutzavia.co.za www.pilotsnplanes.co.za Loutzavia Rand Frans Pretorius 011 824 3804 rand@loutzavia.co.za www@loutzavia.co.za Lowveld Aero Club Pugs Steyn 013 741 3636 Flynow@lac.co.za Marshall Eagle Les Lebenon 011 958 1567 les@marshalleagle.co.za www.marshalleagle.co.za Maverick Air Charters Chad Clark 083 292 2270 Charters@maverickair.co.za www.maverickair.co.za MCC Aviation Pty Ltd Claude Oberholzer 011 701 2332 info@flymcc.co.za www.flymcc.co.za

MH Aviation Services (Pty) Ltd Marc Pienaar 011 609 0123 / 082 940 5437 customerrelations@mhaviation.co.za www.mhaviation.co.za M and N Acoustic Services cc Martin de Beer 012 689 2007/8 calservice@mweb.co.za

Metropolitan Aviation (Pty) Ltd Gert Mouton 082 458 3736 herenbus@gmail.com Money Aviation Angus Money 083 263 2934 angus@moneyaviation.co.za www.moneyaviation.co.za

SAA Technical (SOC) Ltd SAAT Marketing 011 978 9993 satmarketing@flysaa.com www.flysaa.com/technical SABRE Aircraft Richard Stubbs 083 655 0355 richardstubbs@mweb.co.za www.aircraftafrica.co.za SA Mooney Patrick Hanly 082 565 8864 samooney@border.co.za www.samooney.co.za Savannah Helicopters De Jager 082 444 1138 / 044 873 3288 dejager@savannahhelicopters.co.za www.savannahhelicopters.co.za Scenic Air Christa van Wyk +264 612 492 68 windhoek@scenic-air.com www.scenic-air.com Sheltam Aviation Durban Susan Ryan 083 505 4882 susanryan@sheltam.com www.sheltamaviation.com Sheltam Aviation PE Brendan Booker 082 497 6565 brendanb@sheltam.com www.sheltamaviation.com

Sky-Tech Heinz Van Staden 082 720 5210 sky-tech@telkomsa.net www.sky-tech.za.com Sling Aircraft Kim Bell-Cross 011 948 9898 sales@airplanefactory.co.za www.airplanefactory.co.za

Solenta Aviation (Pty Ltd) Paul Hurst 011 707 4000 info@solenta.com www.solenta.com

Unique Air Charter Nico Pienaar 082 444 7994 nico@uniqueair.co.za www.uniqueair.co.za

Unique Flight Academy Nico Pienaar 082 444 7994 nico@uniqueair.co.za www.uniqueair.co.za

Van Zyl Aviation Services Colette van Zyl 012 997 6714 admin@vanzylaviationco.za www.vanzylaviation.co.za

Vector Aerospace Jeff Poirier +902 888 1808 jeff.poirier@vectoraerospace.com www.vectoraerospace.com Velocity Aviation Collin Pearson 011 659 2306 / 011 659 2334 collin@velocityaviation.co.za www.velocityaviation.co.za Villa San Giovanni Luca Maiorana 012 111 8888 info@vsg.co.za www.vsg.co.za

Starlite Aviation Operations Trisha Andhee +27 82 660 3018/ +27 31 571 6600 trishaa@starliteaviation.com www.starliteaviation.com

Status Aviation (Pty) Ltd Richard Donian 074 587 5978 / 086 673 5266 info@statusaviation.co.za www.statusaviation.co.za Superior Pilot Services Liana Jansen van Rensburg 0118050605/2247 info@superiorair.co.za www.superiorair.co.za

The Copter Shop Bill Olmsted 082 454 8555 execheli@iafrica.com www.execheli.wixsite.com/the-coptershop-sa Titan Helicopter Group 044 878 0453 info@titanhelicopters.com www.titanhelicopters.com TPSC Dennis Byrne 011 701 3210 turboprop@wol.co.za Trio Helicopters & Aviation cc CR Botha or FJ Grobbelaar 011 659 1022

Vortx Aviation Bredell Roux 072 480 0359 info@vortx.co.za www.vortxaviation.com Wagtail Aviation Johan van Ludwig 082 452 8194 acrochem@mweb.co.za www.wagtail.co.za Wanafly Adrian Barry 082 493 9101 adrian@wanafly.net www.wanafly.co.za Windhoek Flight Training Centre Thinus Dreyer 0026 40 811284 180 pilots@flywftc.com www.flywftc.com Wings n Things Wendy Thatcher 011 701 3209 wendy@wingsnthings.co.za www.wingsnthings.co.za Witbank Flight School Andre De Villiers 083 604 1718 andredv@lantic.net www.waaflyingclub.co.za Wonderboom Airport Peet van Rensburg 012 567 1188/9 peet@wonderboomairport.co.za www.wonderboomairport.co.za

Zandspruit Bush & Aero Estate Martin Den Dunnen 082 449 8895 martin@zandspruit.co.za www.zandspruit.co.za Zebula Golf Estate & SPA Reservations 014 734 7700 reception@zebula.co.za www.zebula.co.za

stoffel@trioavi.co.za/frans@trioavi.co.za

www.trioavi.co.za

Tshukudu Trailers Pieter Visser 083 512 2342 deb@tshukudutrailers.co.za www.tshukudutrailers.co.za U Fly Training Academy Nikola Puhaca 011 824 0680 ufly@telkomsa.net www.uflyacademy.co.za

United Charter cc Jonathan Wolpe 083 270 8886 jonathan.wolpe@unitedcharter.co.za www.unitedcharter.co.za

FlightCom Magazine

39

CARGO

Boeing 737-300 Cargo Aircraft available for wet (ACMI) lease.

SA Flyer 2021|05

Based at OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg South Africa.

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Contact: yvonne@starcargo.co.za or peter@starcargo.co.za Tel: +27 11 234 7038 www.starair.co.za FlightCom Magazine