Airbus ES announces a new advanced trainer, with some links to the cancelled EADS Mako/HEAT from back in the late 1990s.
Airbus has presented to a small number of media the Airbus Flexible Jet Trainer, AFJT , the offer for the Air Force to replace its CASA C-101 and CASA / Northrop F-5 employees in the last phases of the training of the new pilots.
One aspect that is striking with the images released is the relative resemblance to the MAKO, the proposal that EADS , now part of Airbus, made for an advanced trainer and light attack aircraft in the 1990s .
Sounds like it is very much a Spanish project, with a Spanish suppliers being given priority.The MAKO, which was eventually canceled , had low visibility characteristics, which it had partly inherited from the MBB Lampyridae , a program, also canceled from an interceptor for the German Air Force that was studied in the 1980s.
The AFJT does not need these stealth characteristics, and has a fuselage with rounded lines instead of angular . But in the rest it has a certain air. The wings of both are similar in location, midway up the fuselage, and have a similar geometry . Those of the AJFT with a little greater scope. The MAKO was 8.25 meters from top to bottom and the AFJT is estimated to be about 10 meters. The MAKO was supposed to carry missiles on flat-tipped rails, forcing one end with more rope.
A very crowded Western market place already, with the:
Leonardo M345 & M346 / KAI T-50 / BAE Hawk (still clinging on), and the Boeing T-7A on its way.
Will be interesting to see if the Armée de l'Air takes an interest or if they pursue something with a Dassault badge...
https://fly-news.es/aviacion-comercial/ ... -del-aire/