Thursday, November 26, 2015

Gazmin to lead welcome ceremonies for 2 brand-new FA-50PH jets

From the Philippine News Agency (Nov 27): Gazmin to lead welcome ceremonies for 2 brand-new FA-50PH jets

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, Pampanga at exactly 10 a.m.

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 forced the reschedule to Nov. 28.

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 decommissioned its last Northrop F-5 "Tiger" jet fighters in 2005.

"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 get enough experience of operating fast jet assets and money to fund the acquisition of more capable fighter aircraft.

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 gallons), five in the fuselage and two in the wings.

An additional 1,710 liters (452 US gallons) of fuel can be carried in the three external fuel tanks.

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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