TAI eyes overseas buyers for domestic training planes

ESKİŞEHİR - Anadolu Agency

AA Photo

Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) is focused on finding buyers for its indigenously manufactured local training plane Hürkuş overseas, the head of the company’s plane unit said, adding there were already two companies interested in buying the plane made in Turkey.

“Our biggest objective in 2014 is marketing the Hürkuş,” TAI Plane Group Head Özcan Ertem said yesterday, speaking to Anadolu Agency.

Turkish defense manufacturer TAI had inked a deal with Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM) for the serial production of the domestic basic trainer aircraft on Dec. 26 that involves the production of 15 Hürkuş-Bs, an advanced version with advanced avionics for the Turkish army.

TAI also said the contract involved conceptual design work for the Hürkuş-C, an armed aircraft with aerial support, reconnaissance and surveillance roles.

Ertem said there were two countries “seriously interested in” the Hürkuş, adding the serial order won by the Turkish Army and the SSM paved the way for marketing efforts for foreign markets.

“Other countries look skeptically at a plane that your own country doesn’t use,” he explained, noting the Turkish Army “is known to be demanding strong and ambitious systems,” which added to the value of the program.

The Hürkuş will be equipped for day and night flying, as well as for basic pilot training, instrument flying, navigation training, and weapons and formation training. It will have good visibility from both cockpits, with a 50-degree down-view angle from the rear cockpit, ejection seats, an on-board oxygen generation system, an environmental control system, an anti-G system, and shock-absorbing landing gear for training missions.

On Dec. 23, Turkish military electronics specialist Aselsan signed a $167.4 million contract with the Turkish government to build an X-band satellite communications system.