The Turkish Fighter Aircraft Industrial Collaboration Days event took place in Teknopark Ankara between 3-7 December with the participation of a large number of local and foreign companies who could be involved in the project. The event focused on the requirements of the project, procurement processes, and cooperation opportunities. President & CEO of Turkish Aerospace Temel KOTİL, SSB Vice President Serdar DEMİREL attended the event together with a total of 257 participants from main industry companies, sub-industry companies, universities and institutes in Turkey and abroad.

Addressing the participants on the opening day of the Turkish Fighter Aircraft Industrial Collaboration Days event, President & CEO of Turkish Aerospace Temel KOTİL, stated that they want to bring domestic and foreign companies together in order to ensure the issues of cooperation are discussed and said that no company can manufacture an aircraft like the Turkish Fighter Aircraft which incorporates various technologies, systems, and subsystems alone. KOTİL emphasized that a wide range of different capabilities will be needed throughout the project, from sub-technologies to systems and landing gears to weapon systems.

Providing information on the final status of the project, KOTİL said: “Our aircraft is currently in the wind tunnel, we are trying to give shape to the final configuration. We want to complete the plane as quickly as possible. We have technical cooperation with BAE Systems. Approximately 70 personnel from the company works here. This cooperation is not a simple purchase of engineering services. We are also collaborating technologically. We are building wind tunnels and large laboratories for this aircraft. The National Fighter Aircraft will be manufactured mainly from composite (made up of several parts or elements). Currently, a construction project of US$ 200 million is in progress to create the composite structure. We are investing US$ 200 million in this project. We aspire to convert to TAI, 2% of the world’s capacity in composite technology, so we can manufacture the aircraft readily.”

Explaining the work for human resources required for the project, KOTİL, also reported that one thousand trainee engineers from the universities were raised in Turkish Aerospace and they received almost a thousand engineers this year. KOTİL stated that they have strengthened their establishment by taking into consideration the projects they are conducting.

KOTİL stated that thanks to the project, Turkey and Turkish Aerospace gained the ability to manufacture 5th generation aircraft together with various capabilities ranging from test infrastructure to material and from design to electronics and said: “A single company cannot manufacture a 5th generation fighter aircraft, only a country can manage it. This is the most important 5th generation fighter aircraft project in Europe. As an engineer, I expect to join forces together. Hopefully, this aircraft will become not only Turkey’s but NATO’s aircraft as well.”

During the four-day event, with a total of 258 participants from Turkey and abroad (11 from France, 4 from Germany, 27 from Italy, 4 from the Netherlands, 10 from Spain, 1 from Sweden, 191 from Turkey, 6 from the United Kingdom and 3 from the United States), a total of 652 meetings were held in 33 sessions. The topics of the meetings were particularly A-Type Systems and Sub-systems, Landing Gear, Electrical Systems, Flight Control System, Fuel System, APU, AMAD and Hydraulic Power Systems.