As he bid his 34-year military career goodbye on Wednesday,
outgoing Philippine Air Force (PAF) commander Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Delgado said
that the best moment for him in the service was the arrival and touchdown of
the country's first two FA-50PH "Fighting Eagle" in November 2015.
"(The best day ever for me) was when the FA-50PHs made
their first touchdown in Clark Air Base in November (28)," he recounted.
Delgado is a member of Philippine Military Academy Class of
1982.
The first two FA-50PHs are part of the 12-plane order
contract from Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) worth PHP18.9 billion.
Delgado said that the event was made very memorable due to
long wait as the PAF has been waiting for brand-new supersonic jet aircraft
since 1995.
"I have waited (for more) 20 years, 1995, we were
already working (for the planning and acquisition of brand-new supersonic jets
which will replace the Northrop F-5s), I was already at the AFP Modernization
Office, and I was teary-eyed when it was realized," he said in Filipino.
Prior to the acquisition of the FA-50PHs, the PAF's F-5
fleet was retired due to lack of spare parts and airframe ageing in 2005.
This forced the cash-strapped Air Force to modify its
existing SIAI-Marchetti S-211 jet trainers into rudimentary fighter and attack
aircraft.
Incidentally, the two FA-50PHs also made high-speed passes
along with the PAF's brand-new attack AgustaWestland AW-109s and W-3A
"Sokol" combat utility helicopters during Delgado's retirement
ceremonies at Fernando Air Base, Lipa
City
The FA-50PHs 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
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
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 KAI.
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=864661
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