The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has announced that its new Inundu airborne electronics testing, evaluation and training pod had made its first test flight on September 10. The successful flight was undertaken from Lanseria International Airport, north-west of Johannesburg (and south-west of Pretoria).

“As South Africa celebrates 75 years in radar research and development, this is a major leap forward in bringing together aeronautical, EW and radar research,” enthused CSIR radar and electronic warfare (EW) research group manager Erlank Pienaar. “The team has taken significant strides in extending our laboratory and surface-based research infrastructure to the airborne environment. This progress would not have been possible without the support we received from Epsilon Engineering Services and other industry members, such as Paramount Advanced Technologies, the National Airways Corporation and e-Systems Solutions.”

The pod is designed to serve as a multipurpose flying laboratory and demonstrator for a wide range of electronics technologies as well as to support EW testing and evaluation, including electronic support and synthetic aperture radar. It can do so without needing electronic hardware hardening or ruggedisation and without affecting its interfaces with the aeroplane carrying it. The pod is equipped with a nose radome, permitting the transmission and reception of radio frequencies. It permits rapid testing and implementation of experimental and new electronic technologies. Intended for use on fast jet aircraft, it is designed to be integrated on such aircraft with the minimum effort, while minimising the effects of the flying environment on its payload and supplying all the interfaces required between the payload and the world outside.

“The pod is similar in size and mass to the widely used BL-755 store, which allows low-cost integration with many fast jet aircraft types, such as the BAE Hawk, [Dassault/Dornier] Alpha Jet, Hawker Hunter, [General Dynamics] F-16, [Panavia] Tornado, [McDonnell Douglas] F-4 Phantom and the [Dassault] Mirage III,” reported CSIR Inundu aeronautic development team leader Kevin Jamison. (The BL-755 is a 450 kg, or 1 000 lb, cluster bomb developed and manufactured by UK firm Hunting Engineering, later renamed Insys and now part of Lockheed Martin UK.)

“The pod offers the option of being electrically independent of the carriage aircraft by using a ram air turbine, Wi-Fi communication and a base station telemetry link,” highlighted CSIR Inundu EW payload development team leader Anton Snyman. “It has on-board GPS (global positioning system) and an inertial measurement unit for real-time platform situational awareness and enables scripted or human-in-the-loop responses according to experimental requirements.”

The primary objectives of the first test flight were to start the evaluation of the effects of the pod on the handling of the aircraft, establish how the airframe structure of the pod performed in flight and carry out an analysis of Inundu’s internal environment to pave the way for the integration of future electronics payloads. The test flight employed a preserved and demilitarised Hawker Hunter T.68 two-seat fighter-trainer jet, owned by attorney Ron Wheeldon. It was crewed by Wheeldon and by retired South African Air Force major general, test pilot and CSIR acting executive director Desmond Barker. The pod was tested at speeds up 350 knots (648 km/h) and it had no perceptible affect on the handling of the aircraft. After landing, the Inundu development team determined that its structure had not sustained any damage.

Inundu translates into English as ‘Moth’. The name was chosen because the tiger moth is able to produce sounds that effectively jam the echo location capability of bats, thereby protecting itself from predation.