Seven flying prototypes are envisioned for the Kaan development program. “We have all the testing infrastructure and a very broad experience on testing the aircraft, so that gives us the confidence to fly as early as possible,” he said. It had been previously suggested that the first prototype might not fly until 2025, but Zengin said that simulation and iron bird testing was building confidence in the maturity of the aircraft’s systems. “It has all the systems required for a first flight, but mission systems will be installed later,” Zengin said.Ī second prototype due to fly in 2025 is currently beginning the production process and will be almost representative of early production aircraft, he adds.

Aviation Week was the only Western media present for the rollout event. The aircraft displayed May 1 is a flyable prototype that officials say could be airborne by year’s end, Ugur Zengin, Turkish Aerospace’s executive vice president for the Turkish Fighter program, told Aviation Week’s Aerospace DAILY. High-technology projects such as the combat aircraft program as well as armed uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) have become key visuals in Erdogan’s campaign for re-election. The reveal of the aircraft, one of the centerpieces of Erdogan’s efforts to grow the country’s aerospace and defense industry, comes less than two weeks before general elections.

The aircraft performed an engines-running slow taxi in front of a crowd of Turkish Aerospace workers and their families at the company’s facilities here before shutting down in front of a stage where Erdogan spoke. ANKARA, Turkey-Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan formally named the country’s new TF-X indigenous fighter on May 1 as the aircraft was being publicly unveiled for the first time.Ĭhristening the aircraft Kaan-Turkish for king-Erdogan said it represented a “dream that the nation had been pursuing since the foundation of the Republic” 100 years earlier.

Fighter by S. Massery