The first flight of Aermacchi's M346 trainer is scheduled for May or June, following a project slippage caused by delays in developing the aircraft's electronic flight controls. The Italian company also says pressure to fly its advanced jet trainer design by the end of 2003 was removed when the UK Ministry of Defence announced an order for up to 44 BAE Systems Hawk Mk 128s last August.
Aermacchi decided to undertake additional ground trials before the debut flight, and will this month launch two months of tests on the aircraft's electrical and hydraulic systems and flight controls.
Although it has yet to secure a launch customer for the M346, Aermacchi has begun active marketing of the aircraft to Advanced European Jet Pilot Training partners Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, plus Poland.
Aermacchi hopes to sell 600 M346s over the next 25 years, and chief executive Giovanni Bertolone says the company is willing to look at external suppliers if the type is chosen to meet common European training requirements.
The company says the design's high angle-of-attack, high rate of turn, digital man-machine interface and reconfigurable flight controls mean that 30-40h of training on a combat aircraft can be transferred to the design, offering a saving of $2-3 million in pilot training costs.
Potential rivals to the Italian product include the Hawk Mk 128, EADS's Mako, a revised version of the Saab/BAE Systems Gripen and the Korea Aerospace Industries/Lockheed Martin T-50 Golden Eagle.
Source: Flight International
