FA-50PHs conduct high-speed pass during 80th AFP founding anniversary

From the Philippine News Agency (Dec 21): FA-50PHs conduct high-speed pass during 80th AFP founding anniversary

Two of the country's newest fighter jets -- the South Korean-made FA-50PH "Fighting Eagle" -- made history by making two ceremonial high-speed passes during the 80th anniversary celebration of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Monday.

The flights took place over Clark Air Base, a former United States Air Force base in Angeles City, Pampanga.

The Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI)-built light-interim fighter aircraft made a 350-knot, low-level pass as AFP chief-of-staff Gen. Hernando DCA Iriberri was concluding his anniversary speech.

"Fellow soldiers on this 80th AFP anniversary, let us be grateful for the blessings of our country and the value of freedom and democracy for which countless of our fellow soldiers had offered their lives. Let us once more bear ourselves to our duties with the values of honor, service and patriotism and let us all carry on with our country's colors held high to advance and transform to protect the people and secure the state," Iriberri said.

The jets made another pass as President Benigno S. Aquino III ended his anniversary message to the military after Iriberri's speech.

The Philippines' 12-plane order from KAI is worth PhP 18.9 billion. The aircraft deal was signed in February 2014.

The first two units were delivered last Nov. 28.

The FA-50PH has a top speed of Mach 1.5 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 gets enough experience of operating fast jet assets and money to fund the acquisition of more capable fighter aircraft.

The FA-50PH 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 FA-50PH.

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 FA-50PH 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.

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