VIP plane soars like fish eagle
Date: 9 January 2012
Kim Helfrich
Why is the presidential aircraft named Inkwazi, fish eagle in Xhosa and Zulu, and not blue crane, the country's national bird?
The SA Air Force (SAAF) symbol is the fish eagle, an African raptor with an evocative cry many believe symbolises all that is good about the continent.
The man in charge of heritage and history at the SAAF, Brig-Gen Derrick Page explained during the initial planning for Project Jarman, the acquisition of the Boeing 737-BBJ, that a suggestion was made for each aircraft in the force's VIP squadron to carry the common name of fish eagle in one of the country's 11 national languages.
"This was accepted by the Air Force Board and so the BBJ was named Inkwazi with the long-serving Falcon 900 becoming Fish Eagle and the pair of Falcon 50s Visarend (Afrikaans) and Nong (Sotho). Sadly, to date only the BBJ has been named," he said this week.
The fish eagle's closest relative in the avian world is America's national bird, the bald eagle, but there is no intended correlation between ZS-RSA and Air Force One, the designation carried by one of at least three US Air Force Boeing 747s when America's first citizen is aboard.
Inkwazi was recently returned to 21 Squadron following an exhaustive C-Check in Switzerland to comply with original equipment manufacturer and International Civil Aviation Organisation standards.
No information has been made public about whether or not the presidential aircraft's interior, designed with a contemporary African theme, was changed during the major maintenance and service operation.
The aircraft's interior is configured to allow for a full executive bedroom suite for two people, VIP seating for six cabinet ministers and first class seating for 10 others, including presidential bodyguards and medical staff.
Soaring with Eagles, a coffee-table book project backed by the SAAF Museum and photographed exclusively by Frans Dely, adds Inkwazi normally carries a crew of five: two pilots, an engineer and two hostesses. The engineer has no airborne role but is aboard to allow for independent operations from any airport in terms of flight duties.
The cockpit and cabin are also home to state-of-the-art communications technology including satellite communications, telephone, fax and specialist avionics and electronic deterrents.
Source: The New Age
