Good day all

Today is day two of the Sport Aerobatics Club National Championships which are being held at New Tempe in Bloemfontein.

On day one training and final registration was the order of the day as well as Graduate Validations. The Draw for Advanced, Unlimited and Intermediate Unknown Figures also took place.

Day two the competition starts with the RV and Sportsman/Glider Class kicking off the competition with their “Known Programme” followed by the “Free Known Programme Intermediate”. After lunch today the Advanced and Unlimited pilots will get a chance to strut their stuff. The second sequence of the Spotsman/Glider and RV will close of the competition for the day before everyone meets for the SAC Annual General Meeting. The competition will run until Saturday 4th August 2018.

The South Africa Rally Flying team have arrived in Romania and are getting all the practice they possibly can before the competition starts Sunday 5th August. There are four teams competing in this year’s World Championships they are: Frank and Cally Eckard, Rob Jonkers and Martin Meyer , Jonty Esser and Sandi Goddard and finally Thys van der Merwe and Ron Stirk.Good luck guys and bring back the gold!!

New generation Embraer airliner on demonstration visit to South Africa

Embraer’s new generation smaller single-aisle airliners, the E2 family, are attracting considerable interest in Africa. “There is huge interest from Africa,” Embraer Commercial Aviation VP: Middle East and Africa Raul Villaron said. As a consequence, the first continental tour by an E2 company demonstrator fitted with a full passenger cabin, an E190-E2, has been undertaken across Africa. This aircraft flew a demonstration flight from Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport on Friday.

"The E2’s are very competitive in terms of cost,” he reported. “It’s seat costs are very similar to its bigger competitors and it has a huge trip cost advantage. The E195-E2 and Airbus A220-100 are the same weight but the 195-E2 has 10% more seats.”

In comparison with the previous generation E-Jets family, the E170, the E175, the E190 and the E195, the E2’s have new engines, new wings each model of the E2 has its own optimised wing design, full fly-by-wire controls and other airframe refinements. The E2 family wings are the highest aspect ratio wings fitted to single-aisle airliners today.

The fuel burn of the E2, in comparison with the E1, has been reduced by 17.3%, of which 12% comes from the new engines and 5.3% from the new wings, control system and other airframe refinements. The fuel burn reduction target given to Embraer’s engineers was actually lower than this, at 16%.

Currently, some 150 Embraer commercial aircraft are flown by 45 operators in 23 countries in Africa. E1 family models are flown by Air Burkina, Airlink, Egypt Air, Fastjet, Kenya Airways , the biggest African fleet, with 15 E190s, LAM-Mozambique Airlines, Petro Air and Royal Air Maroc.

“In Africa There is still a lot of interest in the E1,” he pointed out. “We will keep the E1 in production as long as we see demand, and we see demand for a long time. We have a very efficient hybrid production line in Brazil, so we can produce both types without any disruption.”

Embraer recently agreed to form a joint venture with US aerospace giant Boeing, which would encompass the Brazilian company’s commercial aviation activities. “The 195-E2 ,190-E2 and 175-E2 are complementarity to the Boeing 737 MAX family,” noted Villaron.

Textron Systems and Textron Aviation Defence Successfully Integrate Synturian® Mission Control Software and Scorpion Jet

Textron Systems and Textron Aviation announced the successful integration and demonstration of the company’s manned-unmanned teaming capability via the Textron Systems’ Synturian® control and collaboration technology and Textron Aviation Defence Scorpion jet.

“Through Textron Systems’ extensive experience in the field and Textron Aviation Defence’s expertise, we realize the revolutionary benefits that manned-unmanned teaming can deliver to keep manned assets out of harm’s way,” said Textron Systems Vice President of Programs Wayne Prender. “Together, Synturian command and control technologies and the Scorpion jet take this capability to the next-level – increasing Textron Systems’ Level of Interoperability (LOI) from 3 to 4, while enabling multi-vehicle command and control from a moving airborne asset.”

During the rapid proof of concept demonstration, the team installed Synturian software — a vital element of Textron Systems’ new family of multi-domain control and collaboration technologies — into the cockpit mission computer of the Scorpion jet. The team simulated a NIGHTWARDEN® Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System and an Aerosonde™ Small Unmanned Aircraft System for the demonstration, which featured flight acquisition and control of the simulated air vehicles and sensors (up to LOI 4). Using Synturian, the Scorpion aircrew set up flight route waypoints, established surveillance orbits, steered the sensor and changed the unmanned aircraft heading, airspeed and altitude. The simulated unmanned aircraft were then able to operate without further aircrew interaction.

“The ability to easily and intuitively control unmanned systems from the cockpit of a manned tactical aircraft is a game-changer,” said Textron Aviation Defense Senior Flight Test Pilot Brett Pierson, after flying the Scorpion-Synturian test missions. “The tactical and operational ramifications of this new capability are enormous. Further extending Scorpion’s sensor suite and penetrating a weather layer to generate target coordinates; or creating a triangulated solution independently; or adding layers to a multi-spectral fused solution, deliver an entirely new set of tactical capabilities that have never been possible in a fighter-typed aircraft.”

Moving forward, Textron Systems and Textron Aviation Defence plan to advance integration efforts, testing and demonstrating this transformational capability with fully-operational unmanned aircraft to interested customers worldwide.

Synturian control and collaboration technologies empower situational awareness and informed action. The Synturian family of products includes two main product lines — Synturian Control and Synturian Remote. Synturian Control is a multi-platform, multi-vehicle, multi-domain control system that enhances collaboration and dissemination of information. Synturian Remote features mobile, network-strengthened tools that enhance situational awareness through timely information and collaboration. Both Synturian Control and Synturian Remote package these capabilities into small, lightweight hardware form factors that are scalable based on customer needs.

Designed and built with leading-edge technologies, the Textron Aviation Defense Scorpion jet is a bold new direction for tactical aircraft. The Scorpion jet equips the warfighter with a technological advantage while delivering exceptional mission readiness at unparalleled low acquisition, operating and training costs. With its 85-cubic ft. center payload bay, easily field-configurable mission packages, six hard points, fast dash speeds and extended endurance and loiter time, the Scorpion’s versatility is unmatched. Built to excel as an affordable multi-role platform, the Scorpion jet delivers ISR, armed reconnaissance, CAS, maritime and border patrol and jet training capabilities.

This is our BIRTHDAY MONTH, and to celebrate we are offering a 33,33% discount on all advertising that commences in August and the price will remain at the reduced rate as long as the advert is flighted

Please Contact Garth on 0826171247 or advertise@flightlineweekly.co.za for more information