From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, this is the Real Economy Report. Light-aircraft manufacturer The Airplane Factory delivered its two- hundredth airplane in June, having started production of its light and light sport aircraft in August 2010. Jonathan Rodin tells us more.

Jonathan Rodin:
The South African market has proven to be patriotic, as buyers are enthusiastic about buying local products. This is especially evident when buying airplanes, as it enables customers to visit the factory and engage directly with the producer.

The Airplane Factory co-founder and director James Pitman tells us how the company started.

The Airplane Factory co-founder and director James Pitman:
“I’m James Pitman from The Airplane Factory and this is a business myself and Mike Blyth started in 2005 in Edenvale here just in the east of Johannesburg. We started developing a light sport aircraft on the back of a gap that we saw in the market.”

“Essentially, in order to try and facilitate people flying, regulatory changes were made that simplified the certification standards for aeroplanes and also simplified the license requirements to fly aeroplanes and the medical requirements in order to acquire a pilot’s license.”

“We saw this opportunity in the market, it took us three and a half years to get our first development prototype flying and we learnt a helluva lot during that three year process, about how to make a semi-monocoque aluminium aeroplane.”

“Got a lot of advice from guys who had been in arms core in Denel previously, from Aerosud and some other engineers, but it would’ve been nice to have had more expertise in this country. It took us quite a bit longer than it should have to get our first prototype aeroplane flying.”

“I can still remember that aeroplane flew on the 18th of October 2008 and we eventually flew that aeroplane for 42 hours, tested it, changed quite a number of things. You know, changed the size of the vertical stabiliser, the hinge points, we changed slightly the positioning of the mass in the aircraft. Quite a number of engineering changes between the development aeroplane and what we ultimately call the production aeroplane.

Jonathan Rodin:
Before commercial production of the Sling 2 started in 2010, Pitman and Airplane Factory director and co-founder Mike Blyth circumnavigated the world in the Sling 2 production prototype during July and August 2009.

Pitman explains the pairs trip around the world.

James Pitman:
“We wanted to take our production aeroplane Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the worlds biggest air show in the states. It happens during July each year and in its hay-day 1-million people visited Oshkosh during the week of that air show. In these times of global recession it has come down to about 400 000 people, but I believe that this year they are up to half a million guys again.”

“So in July 2009, we built our production prototype aeroplane on the back of our testing we had done on our development prototype, put the plane together in six weeks, and only seven days after that aeroplanes first flight, Mike and I took off to demonstrate our faith in our baby, to fly her across the Atlantic ocean to Oshkosh Wisconsin.”

“The flight across the Atlantic incidentally was the longest flight ever in an aircraft of that size, at that time. It took us 22 hours to fly from Guinea to Brazil. We showed the plane in Oshkosh and for the hell of it, because we love adventure, we actually returned by flying around the world. We kept going west, it took us 40 days to get back to South Africa and when we returned we were satisfied that the aeroplane had proved itself to the level required to go into production, for a saleable product.”

Shannon de Ryhove:
Other news making headlines this week: The Integrated Energy Plan should prioritise renewables; And, a prototype high-lift crane receives positive feedback.

Energy policy expert Richard Worthington says that any long-term energy plan should prioritise the deployment of renewable-energy technologies in the short term.

Energy policy expert Richard Worthington

Multinational engineering company Condra is receiving positive feedback on the testing of its prototype high-speed, high-lift crane technology, which is designed and manufactured for fast-tracking the presink phase of new mine shafts.

Condra MD Marc Kleiner

That’s Creamer Media’s Real Economy Report. Join us again next week for more news and insight into South Africa’s real economy.