South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Algeria’s University of Blida have agreed to set up a Joint Centre of Excellence (JCoE) for aeronautics research. The agreement takes the form of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed at the recent International Exhibition of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the North African country.

The South African Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Algerian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MHESR) are facilitating the JCoE. The initiative will broaden the bilateral science and technology cooperation agreement between the two countries (an objective of the DST) and strengthen Algeria in the sphere of aeronautics (desired by the MHESR).

“Outside South Africa, there are really no other significant aeronautics research capabilities and facilities in Africa,” noted CSIR Defence, Peace, Safety and Security (DPSS) unit acting executive director Major General (South African Air Force, retired) Des Barker. “Algeria’s equivalent Science and Technology Department understands the requirement for Africa to take ownership of its aeronautics research requirements and is delighted to close the African aeronautics research chasm through collaboration with South Africa.”

Areas of possible cooperation include (in alphabetical order) aeroelasticity, aeroacoustics, aircraft structures, avionics and ground systems, computational methods, flow control, gas turbines, hypersonic flow, optronics, radar, space technologies, stores integration, UAV technologies and wind tunnels. The JCoE will incorporate knowledge transfer, by means of staff exchanges, joint seminars and workshops, postgraduate student programmes (including cosupervision of postgraduate students, resulting in joint publications) and joint development programmes.

The MoU was signed at the end of the recent three-day exhibition, held as part of the 60th anniversary celebrations of the start of the Algerian Revolution (on November 1, 1954). The exhibition was under the patronage of the President of Algeria and facilitated by the country’s director general of scientific research and technological development.

Algerian universities and other institutions and agencies (including the National Defence Ministry), the exhibition was attended by scientific and research institutions and universities from Brazil, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, Tunisia, the UK and South Africa. Barker gave the keynote address and the CSIR also made presentations and undertook a flight demonstration of its Indiza mini-UAV.

The aeronautics competence area of CSIR DPSS is South Africa’s national aeronautics research house. It has undertaken a number of UAV R&D projects over the years. These include the Indiza, the Sekwa and the Modular Research UAV. Four Modular UAVs were built and, in addition to those operated by the CSIR itself, examples have been supplied to Stellenbosch University and the University of Johannesburg. In addition, the CSIR has a UAV flight simulator. Other competence areas of CSIR DPSS have developed UAV systems and payloads.

Aeronautical facilities available at the CSIR include several wind tunnels, covering a speed range from Mach 0.2 to Mach 4.3 (The Mach number is the speed of sound in the atmosphere, which, in kilometre-per-hour terms, varies with height.) The science council can also provide aeronautical modelling and simulation capabilities, allowing computer modelling of an aircraft and its flight characteristics long before it does actual flying. CSIR DPSS can also create a flight simulator for an aircraft, before it even takes off.