The US Aircraft Corporation is attending the Dubai air show to raise awareness about the company’s new A-67 Dragon counter-insurgency (COIN) and ISR aircraft, while hoping to identify a launch customer among the many Middle Eastern air forces that have already expressed an interest in the aircraft.

The Dragon is intended for small countries, with small budgets, which need an inexpensive, easily maintainable aircraft with low operating costs, and is optimised for irregular and asymmetric warfare, fighting insurgents in “presently ungoverned spaces”.

There has been a shift, the company believes, “from supersonic jets fighting their peers to wars that look like World War II. It will provide ample capability for internal security duties, but can’t be armed to the point that it can attack one’s neighbours,” according to Maj Gen Richard L Comer, one of the US Aircraft Corporation’s executive team.

Though designed for COIN duties, the aircraft also has an ISR capability, with a retractable Star SAFIRE FLIR turret under the rear fuselage. The aircraft being shown in model form on the company’s stand (W826) is very different from the original prototype that flew in October 2006. This aircraft had features that prevented it from achieving the required performance levels, according to Ray Williams, the company’s president. The original demonstrator, designed by Golden Aviation, borrowed a Swearingen wing and an Aerostar empennage, and its side-by-side seating, and non-optimised aerofoil limited it to 220kt, rather than the 370kt required.

The new version of the A-67 was designed by Joseph Kovacs, who was the creator of the Embraer Tucano. The new A-67 bears a close if superficial family resemblance to the Tucano, though it was designed from the ground up for COIN, with a heavy emphasis on survivability.

The aircraft is fitted with self sealing fuel tanks, explosive retardant foam in the wings, an armoured canopy, redundant electrical systems, push-tube flying controls and has no hydraulics. The first example of the redesigned A-67 will fly in April 2009.

Source: Flight Daily News