South Africa's latest aircraft design, the Advanced High-performance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft (Ahrlac), made its first public flight at Wonderboom Airport, north of Pretoria, on Wednesday. The actual maiden flight took place at the same airfield late last month and the aircraft has now accumulated some seven flying hours.

The two-seat Ahrlac is being developed by South African private sector defence industrial group Paramount, with financial support from foreign partners. South African private sector aerospace company Aerosud is the prime contractor for the project.

"We're very happy with the test programme so far," Aerosud MD and Ahrlac Holdings MD Dr Paul Potgieter told Engineering News Online. The test pilots have reported that the aircraft has shown extremely good handling qualities so far. But, cautioned Potgieter, it is still early days and an extensive flight test programme has to be completed.

"We have started marketing [the Ahrlac]. There is huge interest out there," he affirmed. "There is huge investment behind this aircraft. We wouldn't have done that without believing that there was a very interested market out there. We have a production start date in mind, but it would be premature to reveal it now."

The Ahrlac will be manufactured at a new, dedicated plant. This new facility is now in the advanced planning stage. "Aerosud will likely assist in the manufacturing process," he noted.

The Ahrlac has been designed and developed using the latest technologies, in order to maximise competitive advantages in a crowded and highly competitive market. It was designed using CATIA 5 software. "It is the most detailed digital design ever on an aircraft in this category," Potgieter told a media briefing after the Wednesday flight. "It is a paperless design. We believe we are leaders, on anybody's terms." The prototype was assembled without the use of jigs, reducing assembly costs.

The Ahrlac programme started in 2009 with market studies, configuration studies and wind tunnel testing. Systems integration and the first start of the engine was achieved by March this year. The aircraft was then moved by road from the Aerosud facility in Centurion, south of Pretoria, to Wonderboom. The first taxi trials then followed, in May.

The Ahrlac is intended to be a low-cost multirole reconnaissance and advanced surveillance aircraft, particularly for what the Americans call Homeland Security missions. It could also act as an advanced weapons trainer. "I feel extremely comfortable that we are achieving these objectives," Potgieter told the assembled media.

Powered by a single turboprop engine, the aircraft has four major advantages. First, it is a pusher design (that is, it has a rear-mounted engine), meaning that both the aircrew and aircraft-mounted electro-optical sensors will have unobstructed forward views. Second, this configuration also gives the aircrew a forward view similar to that of a jet, a fact which is arousing interest in the Ahrlac as a training aircraft. Third, it has a payload bay in the lower fuselage, which can be used for sensors, weapons or even cargo. (It will also have six under wing hard points.) Fourth, it has very rugged landing gear, allowing it to use primitive airstrips.