Air Force team to evaluate new planes

Press, 11 June 1987, Page 20

Air Force team to evaluate new planes

A Royal New Zealand Air Force team will leave next week on a six-week mission to evaluate possible replacements for the aging Strikemaster jet trainers. The British-built Strikemasters entered service in 1972 but now suffer recurring problems with fatigue cracking of the wing mounts. The are to be ; progressively rentared from About 1990.

The Strikemasters have two : roles advanced flying training to complete. pilots’ . “wings”; courses, and strike-transi-tion training for pilots going on to fly Skyhawk fighter-attack aircraft The aircraft will be withdrawn first from the advanced training role, then from the strike transition role about five years later. . •/ . Announcing the team’s study trip, the Minister of Defence, Mr O’Flynn, said he had approved the visit

so that the Air Force would get a better appreciation of the options available . before it drew up specifications and approached the Government for leave to call tenders. “It would be ideal, for maintenance and training reasons if all of the 15 Strikemasters were replaced by a single aircraft type,” he said. A strong contender will be the Swiss Pilatus PC-9, in view of the Government’s intention, laid out in the 1987 Defence Review, of purchasing as much as possible through Australian sources. The PC-9 has been chosen by Australia and

its first two are now coming off the production line in Switzerland. However, the remainder of its fleet of 67 will be built in Australia by Hakwer de Havilland and the Govern-' ment Aircraft Factories. « .A New Zealand order for the PC-9 would almost? > certainly come from the* same source. Mr O’Flynn said early indications were that , the PC-9 would be suitable in the advanced training role. . “An evaluation of its strike-transition training ability will head the Air - Force team’s agenda?* he said. The PC-9 is . a two-; seater turboprop design, powered by a Pratt and . Whitney Canadian engine. Its slightly smaller predecessor, the Pilatus PC-7, will also be evaluated. Other turboprop contenders are the Brazilian Embraer Tucano, a simi-

the alternative Short* Turea’SSnT 0 ” Fw turbojet or turbofan dealgnaz (without propellers)- will also be looked at These are the » &ettO2il|an£lhe Abr? macchl M 8339 from Italy, Ken Gayfer, said that the team would be lookiag mainly at the turboprops, “which is an area in which we have little expertise." ?f * The Air Force needed such experience before It drafted its tender speciflcations, he said.: ; \ The team will return to New Zealand at the end of July. It will/then. take up to two nidnths to prepare specifications and tender documents for Government approval. ?