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Aviation History
1986
1986 - 0013.PDF
RAAF orders Pilatus PC-9 CANBERRA Australia's defence minister, Mr Kim Beazley, has dashed local industry hopes of producing the Royal Austra lian Air Force's next basic trainer with his decision, announced on December 15, to order 69 Pilatus PC-9s. It is the second export success for the PC-9, and probably its biggest coup yet, as it was won in the face of competition from the all- Australian A.10B, managed by Sydney-based Hawker de Havilland. Saudi Arabia has also signed to buy 30 PC-9s. Production of the RAAF's PC-9s will begin in mid-1986, with first deliveries beginning a year later. Under the terms of the contract, expected to be finalised this month, the majority of the aircraft will be built under licence in Aus tralia. HdH is expected to take the prime contract, with Government Aircraft Factories as subcontractor. The agreement will also involve collaboration between Pilatus and Australian indus try on future aircraft projects, although the precise terms are still "vague", admits Pilatus. The PC-9, along with its older stablemate the PC-7, was a late entry into Austra lia's search for a new basic trainer. Faced with massive rises in the cost of the A.10B, Beazley invited Pilatus and Shorts, offering the Tucano, to compete for the order on a new fixed-price basis. Competitive tenders were received in Canberra on September 16. Shorts with drew from the competition a day earlier. Throughout the last months of the competition the PC-7 was hotly tipped to win the order, because it answered the RAAF's needs for a low- cost solution. But the PC-9 will allow the RAAF to rede sign its training syllabus and could, according to some Department of Defence esti mates, save A$20 million (£9-5 million) in training costs. The future of the A.10B, the first prototype of which was only completed ten days before Beazley announced the decision, has not yet been decided. But the industry had promoted the A.10B as the The first prototype A.10B was completed at GAF's Melbourne plant only ten days before being dismissed by Australia basis of its future growth and warned that failure to select it would kill Australian design capabilities (see pages 78-81). # Beazley has also announced that the Westland W.30 has been dropped in the final stages of evaluation for a new RAAF utility helicopter. A winner will be selected early this year from the two remain ing candidates, the Aero spatiale AS.332 Super Puma and the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk. CASUALTIES ) An Afghan Air Force MiG- 21 Fishbed was shot down by the Muhajadeen on November 12 in Kandahar province. The pilot, who was a General and reportedly the senior Soviet Air Force advisor to the AAF, ejected and his parachute was found, but he was not located and is presumed captured by Afghan guerrillas. # A Nicaraguan Air Force DEFENCE Mi-8 Hip E was shot down by Contra guerrillas using a SAM-7 on December 2, killing the two Cuban crew members and 12 Nicaraguan troops on board. • A Royal Air Force Panavia Tornado GR.l of 617 Sqn, RAF Marham, crashed into the North Sea while night flying on December 12. The pilot, Fit Lt Michael Barnard, and his navigator, Fit Lt John Sheen, were killed. Some debris has been recovered and Royal Navy minehunters are attempting to locate the air craft's accident data recorder. • Two Douglas C-47 Dakotas of the South African Air Force were involved in a mid-air collision on December 12. The aircraft were part of a formation practising for a 30-ship flypast to celebrate the Dakota's 50th anniversary when the accident occurred. The port propeller of one aircraft removed most of the starboard aileron of the other aircraft and moved forward, ripping the wing before removing the leading-edge de- icing boot. Both aircraft landed safely at Swartkop. When the captain of the lead Dakota asked what was going on, the copilot replied: "They appear to be chewing our wing off, cock." McDonnell Douglas checks out 530F MMS McDonnell Douglas Helicopters' tests of a McDonnell Douglas Astronautics mast-mounted sight on a Model 530F continue. The company hopes to qualify the 530MG Defender model with MMS and the Hughes Aircraft Tow anti-tank missiles. At present the MMS is not Tow- qualified. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 4 January 1986 13
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