Aeronautics Defense Systems will build two additional demonstrators for the unmanned version of the two-engine, propeller-driven Diamond DA42 for the U.S. market, according to Flight Global.The company's president, Avi Leumi, was quoted as saying that the decision followed a first string of test flights in July.
"We will resume the test flights in September," Leumi said. But at the same time, he added, "we will prepare a marketing effort to potential customers, mainly in the USA."
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"A diamond’s new facet"
ReplyDelete" An Israeli-Austrian industrial team has converted a light commercial aircraft into a strategic, multimission UAV. Developed in less than a year by Yavne-based Aeronautics Defense Systems, the Dominator is built around the Diamond Aircraft DA42, a twin-engine, globally certified civil aviation airplane with more than 500,000 flight hours logged. It began flight tests in June.
The self-funded initiative by Aeronautics has yielded two prototypes. One prototype is in Israel undergoing final ground tests before its first flight, while the second made its public debut at the Paris Air Show in June.
Designed to comply with the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) — whose so-called Category 1 Annex restricts exports of systems capable of delivering 500-kilogram payloads more than 300 kilometers — the Dominator is built to carry a 400-kilogram payload for 28 hours, with a line-of-sight range of 300 kilometers."
Since it can carry a pilot in one configuration, it might be just the ticket for a forward observation plane in the Afghan, and at under a million dollars a copy, could save lots of money.
Currently the AF is trying to find a good ground support airframe, small, cheap but able to carry lots of weapons. Bound to have a price tag of several million. I'm wondering if this AC could carry a couple of small missiles and a bomb or two. Personally I would stick with the A10, I understand that there are dozens out in the boneyards that could be brought back to life.
That wouldn't make it a ground support AC but could make some Taliban's day a memorable one.
Papa Ray
West Texas