South Africa firms build compact plane

Paramount Group and Aerosud Holdings Ltd - two South African companies - will unveil the Ahrlac (Advanced High Performance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft), a compact plane that is said to merge the capabilities of a drone, an attack helicopter and surveillance aircraft - at a fraction of the cost.

The Ahrlac is to fill a void left by less versatile and more expensive rivals. "There's nothing like it in the marketplace," says Paul Potgieter, managing director of Aerosud. The Ahrlac will help African governments involved in combat, peacekeeping and humanitarian work, he says and adds that the Ahrlac is in fact designed for police, border patrols and forestry agencies - not just defense ministries.

The two person plane has a simple propeller mounted at the rear, allowing an unobstructed view for reconnaissance. The plane can fly fast or slow and stay airborne for up to seven hours on a tank of fuel. Test flights are scheduled to begin in six months and production, as early as 2013. The Ahrlac will then be one of the first aircraft to be produced in Africa since South Africa's Armscor Defence Institutes (Pty.) Ltd. developed the Roivaalk attack helicopter in the 1980s.

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