Reaching for the skies
Text : Sean Woods. Article from the May 2012 issue of Popular Mechanics Magazine.
For Goverments wanting to manage their domain, there’s nothing quite like an all-seeing eye in the sky to get the job done – especially if it’s equipped with some useful teeth. However, keeping an airborne watch on national assets, and then responding with appropriate force should the need arise, generally knocks a big dent in national coffers.
Enter AHRLAC (Advanced High-Performance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft), a home-grown solution to a global problem. Born from a collaboration between defence and aerospace company Paramount Group and aeronautical component manufacturer Aerosud, this locally developed flying machine – the prototype is still undergoing development at Aerosud’s Innovation and Training Centre near Pretoria – has created quite a buzz in international aviation circles.
Here’s why. For starters, it’s extraordinarily versatile, with the ability to tackle anything from basic visual reconnaissance to disaster relief and emergency supply, advanced electronic surveillance roles (via interchangeable pods housed in its fuselage) and even light attack roles – all at a fraction of the cost of typical airborne platforms.
Homegrown multi-role flier will take on the world
AHRLAC specifications
Overall layout:
Pusher configuration; Uno structured forward view for sensors and internal high-velocity 20 mm cannon; flexible belly-mounted multi-mission sensor pod; high wing for good external view and rough field operation.
Maximum take-off weight: 3 800 kg
Service ceiling: 9 448 m
Length, wingspan, height: 10,5 m x 12 m x 4 m
Cockpit: Tandem seat two crew, sized for Martin Baker Mk 16 ejection seats; large vertical cockpit separation; multifunction IFR glass cockpit.
Payload with full fuel: 800 kg+
Engine: 1 x Pratt & Whitney PT6A-66B 708 kW (flat-rated)
Max cruise speed: 503 km/h
Max range on internal fuel: 2 130 km
Landing gear: Retractable, optimised for semi- and unprepared sites
Take-off distance: 550 m with full payload
Special mission equipment: Conformal and interchangeable mission-specific pod accommodating combinations of: FLIRs, SAR radar, active and passive EW and ELINT/COMINT
External stores: 4-6 wing hard points that can accommodate external fuel tanks; rocket pods; beyond visual range air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles
The birth of the AHRLAC
The rationale behind its development makes perfect sense. On the one hand, there’s the cost factor. Thanks to the global financial crunch, even affluent Western governments are under pressure to cut defence spending. Faced with this reality, cash-strapped developing nations are facing serious challenges in tackling the effects of climate change, the increasing demand for peacekeeping and humanitarian relief missions, terrorism and other security issues.
Another consideration is the rising demand for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). Although autonomous fliers have racked up great press from the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq (thanks largely to the absence of any serious aerial threats in these conflict zones), they by no means offer a complete solution. That’s because, aside from being extremely complex and thus prohibitively expensive to operate, they also lack multi-role flexibility and situational awareness.
Ivor Ichikowitz, executive chairman of the Paramount Group, elaborates: “The reality is that the technology behind UAVs has been oversold, and that the AHRLAC provides a far more comprehensive solution. It has strong defensive capabilities, which means it can operate in hostile airspace; plus, it can carry out operations in domestic airspace because it’s piloted.
“This makes it ideally suited to some of the long-term security issues facing the world – such as drug trafficking control, piracy, patrol of exclusive economic zones, protection of fisheries and rain forests, coast guard and border surveillance, and the monitoring of strategic installations. The cost-effectiveness of this aircraft means that more countries will be able to access the kind of operational capabilities once restricted to a handful of superpowers.”
A third push for the AHRLAC’s development was the fact that Aerosud – founded in 1990 by the core design teams responsible for the development of the Rooivalk attack helicopter and Cheetah fighter jet – wanted to retain its design and developmental capabilities.
Explains Paul Potgieter Jr, Aerosud’s Innovation Programme manager and head of the AHRLAC project: “Our primary function nowadays involves military upgrades as well as the manufacturing of parts and assemblies for Airbus, Boeing, BAE Systems, AgustaWestland helicopters and Spirit AeroSystems. However, we realised that everyone involved in our aerospace industry was approaching retirement age, and that if we didn’t do something about it, we would lose all our local expertise.”
Their solution? Draw as many grey-haired aviation boffins as possible into their fold – even if that meant seducing some of them out of retirement – and teaming them with a bunch of inexperienced but undoubtedly smart engineering graduates to ensure a seamless transfer of skills.
From this successful strategy was born Aerosud’s Innovation and Training Centre. Dubbed “skunkworks” by insiders (the name is derived from America’s Lil’ Abner comic strip, later adopted by the Lockheed aircraft company during WW2), it’s here that the 35-strong engineering team, with its yawning generation gap, brainstorms ideas and comes up with innovative solutions.
Starting from scratch
When Ichikowitz, Potgieter Jr and his father (Dr Paul Potgieter, Aerosud’s MD) first started exchanging ideas for a multi-purpose light aircraft that could be fully integrated into the high-tech communication network of Paramount Group’s land-based systems in 2008, the two companies already had a basic working relationship, but nothing was happening on the innovation front.
What they needed was a modular design that could be configured to suit various applications and roles. It had to be capable of rapid deployment and fast response times, able to land and operate from basic or semi-prepared airstrips with minimal
What they needed was a modular design that could be configured to suit various applications and roles. It had to be capable of rapid deployment and fast response times, able to land and operate from basic or semi-prepared airstrips with minimal or no logistical support, and have short take-off and landing capabilities. Oh, and it had to be armed.
The initial plan was to modify a small production aircraft, but it soon became apparent that such a machine wouldn’t handle the required payload, so the only solution was to design something from scratch. As challenging as this seemed at the time, it proved to be the least of their worries. “I couldn’t find anyone to join me,” recalls Potgieter. “Everyone I approached didn’t believe it could be done here in South Africa.”
Eventually, the only designer willing to get onboard was Manie Warren, a veteran with formidable experience in drawing aircraft, and who’d worked on virtually every local aviation project since the 1970s. Next, they hired Estiaan Jacobsz, freshly graduated from Potchefstroom University and an enthusiastic pilot. Now the plan was starting to come together, and the initial design phase could get under way – albeit with an incredibly small team, and no budget whatsoever.
After spending a few months hunched over computers (not to mention a fair amount of begging, borrowing and stealing as the financial constraints kicked in), Potgieter received a surprise call from Ichikowitz, who announced that he’d be bringing a potential client to see them in one month’s time, adding that they had “better be ready”. Recalls Potgieter: “At the time, we had nothing … just a bunch of pretty pictures on a PC!”
Potgieter’s team, now comprising six people, went into overdrive to complete a mock-up model. Working around the clock – and for the last 36 hours, flat out without sleep – they managed to make the deadline. The rest, as they say, is history. Both Ichikowitz and the client were impressed, Aerosud got their financial backing, and the project could finally begin in earnest. Says Potgieter: “All of a sudden, engineers were knocking on our door; now I had the pick of the crop!”
Getting down to business
Realising how costly it was to develop a new aircraft from scratch using conventional methods, Aerosud opted for an entirely new approach. Potgieter explains: “When I sat down and did the costing, I discovered that you can expect to spend the same amount on jigging as in development. There just wasn’t enough money available for us to double the budget, so innovation had to happen – we had no other option.”
Here’s what typically happens with such a project: first, the aircraft is built entirely by hand. Next, a manufacturing engineer designs the specialist tooling and machinery, and develops the processes required to make production possible. That accomplished, a few aircraft are built to verify the full system.
According to Potgieter, Aerosud’s skunk-works operates differently. “Here, we design components along with the engineer right at the start of the CAD process.” They also bought two important pieces of machinery – a five-axis router for cutting sheet metal (both in flat form and after shaping) and a five-axis milling machine for carving components out of solid blocks of aircraft-grade aluminium. “If we can’t use these two machines to manufacture any of our designs, we go back to the drawing board and start all over again until we can.”
To verify their computer-to-component manufacturing process, Potgieter’s team hand-built one of the twin 3,6 metre-long tail booms on a table – without a jig. “When we finished it, we found we were out by just 0,5 mm.
And when a full load test was performed, it deflected 68 mm, just as predicted.
This not only validated our new manufacturing methodology, but also the expertise of the artisans who had built it.”
To date, Aerosud’s quarter-scale AHRLAC radio-controlled model has conducted 100 successful test flights, proving that their design is aerodynamically sound. They are also working flat-out to complete a full-sized prototype. Although the AHRLAC’s maiden flight is expected to take place only later this year, the aircraft has already garnered serious international attention.
Says Potgieter: “We’ve right-sized it for the world market. At first, we were targeting only the developing nations, but now even First World markets are expressing strong interest.”
In basic form, the AHRLAC is expected to cost a modest R75,5 million (remember, it’s all relative). However, if you’d like to add some extras – such as a sophisticated surveillance system, a high-velocity 20 mm cannon or a few rocket pods – you’ll have to dig a little deeper.
‘Everyone I approached didn’t believe it could be done here in South Africa.’
Visit www.ahrlac.com for more information.
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