TUSAŞ General Manager Professor Temel Kotil told a television channel, “KAAN is undergoing mechanical tests. We continue with the calendar. As our President said, we will make the first flight this year. We buy the ejection seat from the United Kingdom, and The tests are carried out there.”
TUSAŞ supplies the TF’s ejection seat from the British company Martin Baker. It was learned that the tests were also carried out within the company. Accordingly, all structural features of the pilot cockpit were moved to the United Kingdom. Here, tests will be performed to show the results of the flight from zero to maximum speed and from various angles. As a result of these tests, compatibility studies will be carried out on the ejection chair and the aircraft. In the past, a minimum weight limit was imposed for the ejection seat installed on F-35 aircraft.
Kotil said, “We made a front part of KAAN and sent it there to be used in tests. The first launch has been made, and the second launch will be made. “This way, God forbid, if something goes wrong while flying, our pilot will be saved.”
On the other hand, TurDef has learned that TUSAŞ’s advanced training jet and light attack aircraft project, Hürjet, is approaching a two-pilot flight. For this reason, installation work on the second ejection seat of the aircraft has begun. It is an essential process for the plane to fly with two pilots.
According to the printed names on the aircraft’s cockpit, the two pilots are probably Ercan Çelik and Orhan Boran.
The flight tests with two pilots on board demonstrate that TUSAŞ engineers have not encountered any critical safety problems.
So far, the primary pilot, Çelik, controlled flight safety during the introductory flight. Another pilot also flew on the aircraft in early June, but the pilot’s name was not revealed.
As this is a tandem-seat trainer aircraft, the pilot on the front seat will typically be the student, and the teacher pilot will sit in the rear seat. Two pilots will control how the flight controls are handed over to the other.
