Page 20 - World Airnews Magazine March 2021

DEFENCE NEWS

LOSS FOR DENEL NEW WINDTUNNEL TESTS

enel Aeronautics has recorded a second round of wind tunnel

D(US) $4.2 million or R61 million loss Atesti ng is under way for a new
in the 2019/20 financial year on revenue composite wing which will equip a high-

of R770 million. For the previous financial speed tiltrotor demonstrator being devel-

year, the division made a R17 million profit, oped as part of the EU’s Clean

according to the latest Denel annual report. Sky 2 programme.

Exiting the aerostructures business is set The T-Wing consortium - led by the Italian

to save Denel hundreds of millions of rands aerospace research centre CIRA - is in part-
per year. According to the annual report, nership with Leonardo Helicopters for the
exiting Denel’s aerostructures manufacturing development of the next-generation civil

business, which was expected to be largely tiltrotor techdemo, an aircraft which is due

concluded by the end of July 2020, resulted in to make its maiden flight in 2023.

an annualised savings benefit of R260 million. Initial assessment of the NGCTR-TD’s

As part of the exit and winding up of Aeronautics was able to maintain current around the clock to do maintenance, repairs aerodynamic performance was conducted

Denel Aerostructures, the Ribs Spars and certifications and accreditations from various and testing of equipment.” by Leonardo Helicopters in June 2019 with dustrial manufacturing process of the wing

Sword work package for the Airbus A400M external bodies and regulators such as the Another highlight of the year listed by the the support of T-Wing, Clean Sky 2’s LIFT the wind tunnel runs,” he said. based on the tooling being constructed by
Atlas transport was successfully transferred International Standards Organisation (ISO) Kempton Park-based company concerns project and other partners and suppliers. Meanwhile, the T-Wing partners have OMI,” said Di Palma.

in September 2019, along with two work and the aerospace standard with Bureau the Denel Technical Academy, incorporated completed the critical design review for the
During the new round of evaluations, due

packages for other customers. Veritas International, Aircraft Maintenance under Denel Aeronautics, which completed to last for two weeks, a 1.2m (3ft 11in)-long structure and have begun initial manufac- “This wing is a very unconventional

“With the winding up of Denel Aero- Organisation approvals with the South Afri- training for the Cameroon Air Force with model, developed by IBK Innovation, will turing activities to support the production design and is based on a highly integrated

structures, it was contemplated that 230 can Civil Aviation Authority, and aircraft and 117 learners successfully completing their be used. It is based on the wing’s aerofoil, of full-scale ground- and flight-test wings wing box concept developed by MA Group

employees would be retrenched. Through subsystem OEM accreditations with Airbus aircraft trade studies. complete with a moveable flaperon. for the project. on an in-service CS-25 [category aircraft]

programme.

redeployments within the Denel Group, Helicopters, Lockheed Martin, Russian Heli- Furthermore, 38 learners from North It will be integrated into “a complex exper- The T-Wing consortium comprises

this number was reduced to 177 re- copters and Safran Helicopter Engines. West were successfully handed over to their imental set-up called DEMOS”, said CIRA’s Naples, Italy-based MA Group as industri- “Before manufacturing the test articles,

trenchments, 58 of these being voluntary This allowed it to maintain South African sponsor, the North West provincial govern- research and development manager and al leader; Italian machining expert OMI; the consortium is perfecting the process
retrenchments,” the company stated. Air Force C-130, Oryx and Rooivalk aircraft. ment, to complete on-the-job training after T-WING project coordinator Luigi Di Palma. crash-test specialist SSM, also from Naples; through several full-scale manufacturing

Denel Aeronautics employs just over Denel said this helped the Air Force re- completion of their initial theoretical train- German engineering consultancy IBK trials that are currently in progress,”

This will allow “pitch rotation according

800 people. spond to the COVID-19 pandemic. ing. The last 90 students cosponsored by to user-defined laws”. Innovation, which specialises in loading he said. Q

and aeroelasticity; and University of Naples

A key highlight of the year under review was “The Oryx transport helicopters carried Denel and the National Skills Fund were due Federico II for experimental dynamics.
“The machine is a dynamic one, able to

the return to service and sale of 12 ex-South critical medical and humanitarian supplies to to complete their on-the-job training during rotate the wing model at high speed during Article courtesy:

African Air Force Cheetah fighter aircraft to communities on a daily basis and conducted 2020 and be prepared for their trade testing “At present, MA Group is finalising the in- https://www.flightglobal.com/

Draken International under Project Dragon. surveillance operations. Denel Aeronautics by the Denel Technical Academy. Q

The first milestone came on 18 October 2019 also carried out critical repair work on the

with the delivery of the first two aircraft. main gearboxes of two Oryx helicopters and Article courtesy: https://www.

Despite difficult trading conditions, Denel technical support teams were on standby defenceweb.co.za/ AIRPORTS

NEWS
SIX AFRICAN AIRPORTS
QATAR AIRWAYS AND of “The Voice of the Customer” recogni-

tion is sponsored by Amadeus. partnership with airports to help them
rapidly scale passenger handling capacity
CEMAIR SIGN Tal has recognised six African agne International Airport (Diass, Sene- up or down, to serve passengers in new
he Airports Council Internation-
These African airports Dakar Blaise Di-
parts of the airport or ‘off-airport’ and

airports through their “The Voice of the gal) Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to make their experience contactless.

ed to sign the interline agreement with important market to us and we continue Customer” programme. (Nairobi, Kenya) Kotoka International Despite the operational difficulties faced

CemAir, connecting our passengers to to demonstrate our commitment to the Launched last year, the certificate is Airport (Accra, Ghana) Moi International by all airports, we believe those that place

atar Airways and CemAir 16 additional domestic and four regional region by strengthening partnerships given to airports around the world which Airport (Mombasa, Kenya) SSR Interna- the passenger at the centre of everything

Qhave announced the imple- destinations from South Africa. with local carriers and steadily increas- demonstrated significant efforts in gath- tional Airport (Mauritius, Mauritius) and they do are well positioned to build safer

mentation of an interline agreement “We are proud to be the leading ing South Africa frequencies.” ering passenger feedback through the Tunis Carthage Airport (Tunis, Tunisia) and more satisfying, smoother experienc-

between the carriers. international carrier connecting South “We are proud of our association with Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Departures have been recognised. es for travellers.

This will allow passengers seamless Africa with Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Qatar Airways, one of the world’s leading survey, to help them better understand Bruno Spada, executive vice president The Airport Service Quality programme

travel between points in the carriers Middle East and the US, offering more airlines. Qatar Airways is a strong partner their customers during the pandemic. airport IT at Amadeus said, “We are proud is a customer experience measurement

two networks with the convenience of a flexible travel options and a global and with the significant changes in the To qualify, an airport member must have to support this important recognition of and benchmarking programme across 34

single ticket and lower cost. network of flights that passengers, South African airline industry we look collected three or more quarters of data. airports that relentlessly sought to gather key performance indicators. More than

Qatar Airways vice president Africa, trade and business partners can rely forward to working with them,” said This year, 140 airports have been rec- passenger feedback during the pandemic. half of the world’s travellers pass through
Hendrik du Preez said, “We are delight- on. South Africa has always been a very Miles van der Molen, CEO of CemAir. Q ognised around the world and delivery During that period, we have worked in an ASQ airport. Q
World Airnews | March 2021 World Airnews | March 2021
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