Hawk program is on course
Date: 3 April 2006
The following is a (very) rough extract from an Afrikaans article that appeared in Sake Beeld:
The Hawk lead-in fighter trainer program, which will renew that aspect of the airforces training, is on course despite problems with the computer programming for the local avionics.
There are already 17 of the aircraft built locally by Denel Aviation and the first aircraft with the local avionics on board is going full-steam with flight testing at the airforces Test Flight and Development Centre near Bredasdorp.
Mnr. Chris Geoghegan, Chief operating Officer of BAE Systems, told Sake that is is not strange that various aircraft systems which were manufactured by various manufacturers were incorporated into one aircraft.
According to Geoghegan, it does not mean that that there is anything wrong with the local product. It will not influence the in-service date of the aircraft, particulaly as it is not unusual to continue development and refining of an aircraft afte rit has been placed into service.
