20 May 2018 12:30 pm Views - 19363
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) to receive six brand new PT-6 Aircraft from the China National Aero-Technology Import & Export Corporation (CATIC) for primary training of the SLAF.
Commander of the SLAF Air Marshal Kapila Jayampathy signed the acceptance of the aircraft at AVIC Hongdu in Nanchang on May 15.
The SLAF said, the Aircraft, painted in the recently introduced livery of the SLAF, were inspected and flight tested by SLAF Engineers and Pilots and were deemed to be in conformance of the specifications and ready to be inducted into the SLAF fleet.
The aircraft will be utilized at the No1 Flying Training Wing at the SLAF Academy, China Bay for the ab initio training of newly enlisted pilots.
Vice President of the CATIC, Liu Jianhai signed the deal on behalf of M/S CATIC while vice President of AVIC Hongdu, Zheng Tangjie signed as the witness.
The Director Civil Engineering of the SLAF, Air Vice Marshal MRK Samarasinghe, who also joined the Commander on the visit, held discussions with CATIC on the progress of the Aircraft Overhaul Wing Project, which is being progressed in collaboration between SLAF and CATIC.
In 2015, the National Security Council approved the request to purchase the six PT-6 aircraft at a cost of more than USD 5 million.
PT-6 has been widely used by China’s Air Force and countries such as the United States, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
PT-6 aircraft is a single-engine, tandem seat propeller trainer capable of performing primary flight training.(Darshana Sanjeewa)