Turkish airplane Hürkuş rolls out

Özgür Ekşi ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

This photo shows a prototype of the Turkish Air Industry’s first military civilian use airplane Hürkuş, which is being launched today. Hürkuş is a pilot training plane.

The Turkish Air Industry’s (TAI) first military civilian use airplane Hürkuş (free bird) will roll out today with a ceremony. The TAI will make a show of its productions by flying Turkish UAV ANKA and the T-129 attack helicopter for the first time in front of public. The ceremony will take place on the anniversary of the approval of the law on the foundation of the company in 1984.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is scheduled to observe the vehicles - as well as the Hürkuş.
Hürkuş, a pilot trainer plane, will be demonstrated to the public for the first time at the event. The plane is expected to be ready to fly within a year and will also be shown to the audience at the Farnborough International Air Show.

The aircraft will be used to execute basic pilot training, instrument flying, navigation training, and weapons and formation training missions. Hürkuş is expected to be exported as a civilian and military flight trainer aircraft.

The first Hürkuş prototype will carry civilian use specifications. It is built adhering to the EASA CS 23 standards. Upcoming prototypes will have military standards. The last and most developed version of Hürkuş will carry weapons in the future. The development program of the Hürkuş began in March 2006 as part of the contract signed between the SSM and the TAI. The agreement covered four aircraft to be designed, built, examined, verified and certified by the TAI. The aircraft was named after Turkey’s first aviator Vecihi Hürkuş. Hürkuş’s daughter will participate in the ceremony, and her parents are expected to fly from U.S. in order to attend ceremony.

Tandem cockpit

Hürkuş has an analog and digital cockpit with a tandem seat configuration for two crew members - a student pilot and an instructor. The next configuration will be a glass cockpit. TAI engineers are very proud of cockpit as it is thin enough to easily break in case of emergency for the exit of emergency seat but it is strong enough to protect the pilot in the event of bird crash at the speed of 300 km/h.

In 2007 it was forecasted that the first prototype would fly in late-2009 with first delivery, upon completion of the certification process, forecast for 2011. The date for the first flight is not known yet, as TAI authorities say they can not predict how the EASA certification would be processed.