In an exclusive interview with defensehere.com, the President of the Presidency of Turkish Defence Industries (SSB) Prof. Dr. Ismail Demir talked about the latest developments in the TF-X project that is being carried out by Turkish Aerospace.
We are presenting the third part of our interview with Prof. Dr. Ismail Demir, about the National Combat Aircraft (TF-X):
Defensehere.com: What are the latest developments in the National Combat Aircraft (TF-X) project and what is coming up next? Have there been any decisions taken in regards to the engine of the aircraft?
The President of SSB Prof. Dr. İsmail Demir:
Our national fighter project TF-X, what we call it, is on track and the number of engineers are working in our design center and the project is really going well. As know we had agreement with BAE Systems and certain number of engineers are supporting our program through BAE systems.
And their teams and our teams are working together, and as I said the program is on track. We don’t expect any surprises and it is not an easy project. Of course, considering that turkey didn’t have much experience about the area of the jet fighters.
We are collecting people and they are undergoing training. And design processes, retentive processes and parametric studies, etc., and some of the wind tunnel studies have already been started and we are performing that.
And the first metal cut was performed last week, so we are trying to develop that and when it comes to engine, we had also initial engine design development process started, and in the mean time as a intermediate solution we are going to use a ready available engine. Of Course, that won’t be exactly matching the requirements of the final design, and our indigenous engine project’s engine capabilities are much different, but as long as the size, the geometry and some other parameters are concerned, we have selected one of the engines available in the world, so that we can have at least our role out be on time, maybe our also first flight on time with the old shaft engine, after that we hope that our indigenous engine will be ready after 2026 or 2027.
