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Aermacchi Toasts M-346 Maiden Flight; Launches M-311
Inevitably, when Aermacchi showcased its trainer stable at Farnborough on Tuesday, the newly flown M-346 stole almost all the thunder. Sorties last Thursday and Friday kicked off the flight trials program, which will be resumed as soon as the test and development team returns from the show. There will be no lay-up after the initial sorties, as sometimes is the case with other aircraft; prototype CMX615 will fly some 60 times before the end of the year to complete the first phase of trials.
Now comes the difficult bit. Aermacchi has to sell the M-346 to the Eurotraining air forces consortium against what it calls a "paper or wooden" contender—a pointed reference to the EADS Mako—and secure industrial partners to launch production. The latter are promised different levels and shares in the program, according to their inclinations, and Aermacchi has not denied that Russia's Yakovlev is a possible participant, a situation possibly to be clarified by an MoU that could be signed as early as today.
Timetable now is for the second prototype to fly in March 2005 and the third, which will be to production standard, in late 2006. Series manufacture can begin in late 2007, for certification and service-entry before the end of 2010. From 1,650 anticipated sales in its area of the trainer market over the next 25 years, the M-346 is expected to claim 600.
Relegated to second place in Aermacchi's presentation yesterday was a "brand-new" aircraft, the M-311. Its lines seem familiar, however, for it is the (former SIAI-Marchetti) S.211 basic jet trainer reinvigorated for production re-launch with a strengthened structure for expanded maneuverability, digital avionics and HOTAS controls, plus a civil-style FAA and European certification.
—Paul Jackson
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