A UK-SWEDISH design team has won the promise of financial support from South Africa's Orange Free State Government to develop and manufacture a six-seat utility/executive aircraft featuring a rhombic tandem-wing design.
Dubbed the TW-18, the pusher-propeller design includes a shoulder-mounted wing, swept back to join at the tips with a forward-swept low wing which doubles as the horizontal-tail surface.
The aircraft is to be powered by two Teledyne Continental IO-520 engines driving three-bladed 2m-diameter propellers. Target cruise speed is 175kt (325km/h) at 75% power.
Maximum take-off weight is expected to be 2,400kg. At sea level ISA conditions, the TW-18 has a take-off run of 200m (655ft), which, in hot-and-high conditions - 5,000ft at 38¡C - increases to 300m.
Project leader Bjorn Helme-Lundberg has been actively seeking an international partner to take a share in the venture, and has received a commitment from the Orange Free State to match any foreign investment at a ratio of 1:2.
The state government has also offered to provide 12% of the funding required to produce a prototype aircraft, and 30% of the industrial investment needed for production.
Structures and Airframe Technology, part of the CSIR group, the Pretoria-based Aeronautical Research Institute which designs the all-composite Ace primary trainer, is understood to be interested in building the TW-18 prototype.
The Orange Free State, however, is keen to see series production established at Ficksburg, east of Bloemfontein.
Source: Flight International
