Aero Vodochody has allowed the first potential export customer to test fly the L-159 Advanced Light Combat Aircraft (ALCA) during a visit to the Czech Republic by a Venezuelan air force delegation in the middle of February.

Venezuelan chief of air staff Gen Jaime Padron and three test pilots flew the L-159 prototype, which was removed from its flight test programme and fitted with a second ejector seat for the occasion, replacing the flight test instrumentation usually fitted in the rear cockpit.

The Czech company has received a request for proposals from Venezuela for 24 new jet trainers to replace its current fleet of 20 Rockwell T-2D Buckeyes. Competitors are expected to include the British Aerospace Hawk and Yakovlev Yak-130, being developed in partnership with Aermacchi.

Aero says that it is also in discussions with "several" other unnamed potential export customers and already has an order from the Czech air force for 72 aircraft in the close air support, reconnaissance and air defence roles.

The manufacturer was not expecting to allow export clients to fly the aircraft until the middle of this year, but says that flight testing is going so smoothly that this could be brought forward.

Aero has flown a total of 100h on the L-159 and other flying systems testbeds since the prototype was rolled out in mid-1997. The new brakes and nosewheel steering system are being tested on an L-39 trainer, while an L-59 is being used as a testbed for the L-159's autopilot and yaw damper.

A Mikoyan MiG-21 fighter has been adapted for high speed ejector seat trials, while the L-159 prototype itself is used primarily to test the aircraft's AlliedSignal/ITEC F124-GA-100 turbofan powerplant.

The second prototype will be completed by early May, says the manufacturer. The aircraft will be the first single seat L-159, and the first to be fitted with the full Boeing-developed avionics package. It should be flying by the fourth quarter of this year.

Delivery of the first production aircraft is due at the end of 1999.

Source: Flight International