IRANIAN AIRCRAFT builder Dorna expects to fly its Blue Bird two-seat light aircraft for the first time in the middle of this year.
The Tehran-based company, launched the programme in early 1994, with the original intention of flying the aircraft in 1995. A shortage of funds, followed by attempts to sell the project to Iranian Government organisations caused the 12-month delay.
Yaghoub Antesary, managing director of Dorna, says that the company has now secured sufficient private funds to steer the aircraft through local certification and into production. "We lost some time, but now we are on more firm ground," he says.
Dorna has fallen foul of a US Government embargo on sales of equipment to Iran, and it is unclear whether the prototype Blue Bird will be fitted with the Teledyne Continental IO-240 engine as planned, or an alternative power plant, Antesary says. The company is looking at two engines from outside the USA.
The all-composite, conventional low-wing, fixed-gear light aircraft is aimed initially at the Iranian market for pilot training and private and police work. Antesary, who is also a member of several Iranian Government aviation bodies, says that there is a growing domestic need, in part to replace old aircraft such as the Beech Bonanza and Cessna 172.
Certification will be to JAR-VLA (very light aircraft) standards and the company, hopes to fund certification of the aircraft outside Iran from domestic sales.
Source: Flight International
