Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Voltaire
Gazmin will lead the welcoming ceremonies for the two brand-new FA-50PH
light-interim fighter aircraft Saturday.
The two planes will touchdown at Clark Air Force Base, Angeles City
This was confirmed by DND public affairs office chief
Arsenio Andolong.
The two FA-50PHs were supposed to arrive this Friday but
inclement weather over South
Korea
The DND has signed a 12-plane contract worth Php18.9 billion
with Korea Aerospace Industries last March 2014.
Philippine Air Force (PAF) spokesperson Col. Enrico Canaya
said the arrival of the first two FA-50PH is a historic moment for the PAF as
the arrival of the two jets signal the Air Force's return to the supersonic
age, a capability abandoned when the Philippines
"This is the revival of (our) supersonic
capability," he added.
Aircraft with supersonic capability are planes capable of
flying 750 miles per hour or faster.
At present, the fastest aircraft in the PAF inventory is the
SIAI-Marchetti S-211 jet trainer which has a top speed of more than 450 miles
per hour.
The aircraft will be piloted by two South Korean pilots and
will be unarmed, he added.
Months of intensive pilots are to be required before the
FA-50PHs are committed to operations last February 2014.
The F/A-50 (the other designation for the FA-50PH) has a top
speed of Mach 1.5 (990 miles per hour) or one and a half times the speed of
sound and is capable of being fitted air-to-air missiles, including the AIM-9
"Sidewinder" air-to-air and heat-seeking missiles aside from light
automatic cannons.
It will act as the country's interim fighter until the Philippines
The F/A-50 design is largely derived from the F-16
"Fighting Falcon", and they have many similarities: use of a single
engine, speed, size, cost, and the range of weapons.
KAI's previous engineering experience in license-producing
the KF-16 was a starting point for the development of the F/A-50.
The aircraft can carry two pilots in tandem seating. The
high-mounted canopy developed by Hankuk Fiber is applied with stretched
acrylic, providing the pilots with good visibility, and has been tested to
offer the canopy with ballistic protection against four-pound objects impacting
at 400 knots.
The altitude limit is 14,600 meters (48,000 feet), and
airframe is designed to last 8,000 hours of service.
There are seven internal fuel tanks with capacity of 2,655
liters (701 US
An additional 1,710 liters (452 US
Trainer variants have a paint scheme of white and red, and
aerobatic variants white, black, and yellow.
The F/A-50 uses a single General Electric F404-102 turbofan
engine license-produced by Samsung Techwin, upgraded with a full authority
digital engine control system jointly developed by General Electric and Korean
Aerospace Industries.
The engine consists of three-staged fans, seven axial stage
arrangement, and an afterburner.
Its engine produces a maximum of 78.7 kN (17,700 lbf) of
thrust with afterburner.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=831916
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