South Africa's military industry can at least be regarded as a certain bright spot, Wang Zhengguo happened to have the opportunity to visit South Africa this time, Kempton Park, as South Africa's only aviation manufacturing base, almost all the country's aircraft industry-related things, most of them were collected around the Kempton aircraft factory.

On the third day after settling down, someone visited the factory under the arrangement of the person in charge of the new fighter project, and this time South Africa was ambitious to develop the ability to develop the whole aircraft, and naturally it was unwilling to fall behind when facing Wang Zhengguo.

Directly take a tour of the factory is the only one that can produce the whole machine of the Impala light trainer attack aircraft production line, which is a product introduced in the sixties from the Italian Markey company MB326 trainer aircraft development, but there is no big bright spot, but fortunately, the technology is mature and simple, and South Africa can also serve it.

If you really want to give an evaluation of this aircraft, it is probably a level of the Republic Jianjiao 5 jet trainer aircraft, and it has some air combat and interception capabilities that are slightly better than nothing.

There are not many aircraft models that can be improved in South Africa, unlike in the 60s of the Republic, where there could be a bull like Chief Commander Hongdulu to make up the world's top attack aircraft at that time, so it can only give the impala trainer at hand a certain ground attack capability, which can be regarded as better than nothing.

It is this kind of multi-purpose positioning that has allowed South Africa to produce a total of more than 300 aircraft after the introduction of the aircraft, which is indeed an excess for a country with a land area of only more than 100 square kilometers.

It is precisely for this reason that South Africa has the world's largest fleet of MB326 series trainers, which is far more than the number produced by Markey itself, which is not a big surprise.

Being able to have such a large production scale fully shows that South Africa is very satisfied with this model, and the introduction of the person in charge of the factory also makes Wang Zhengguo really impressed by this model.

Pointing to the new aircraft that is doing the final painting process in the assembly workshop: "The Impala Mk. II attack aircraft produced now is a single-seat design on the basis of the Impala two-seat trainer aircraft, which has increased the range and bomb load, and belongs to the single-seat variant. ”

I have heard that a single-seat fighter has been changed to a two-seat combat trainer aircraft, but the aircraft originally designed as a two-seat has been changed to a single-seater, which is quite rare in the international aviation community.

That is, South Africa was jointly sanctioned by the international community, and it really couldn't buy military fighters, so it tried all kinds of ways to make up the only resources at hand, which is still very similar to the republic.

"It still looks very good, a training aircraft with little potential, you can change it like this, it's still very careful. ”

This self-reliant attitude alone is very worthy of admiration, Wang Zhengguo, as a visitor, and the Republic has also gone the same way, he is well aware of the difficulties, and naturally he will not be stingy with his praise at this time.

If you haven't risen up in adversity, you won't understand this feeling, and it just so happens that South Africa and the Republic have had the same experience, the difference is that the Republic has survived now, and South Africa is still not very good.

Fortunately, the head of the Puckenson aircraft factory is optimistic, and he is optimistic about the future development prospects of South Africa's aviation industry, and continues to introduce it earlier.

"This single-seat attack aircraft was so popular during its military service that it was so widely used in this border war that even those of us who developed it back then could not have imagined that it could also be used to intercept helicopters, and so far, in addition to conventional ground attacks, it has intercepted and shot down at least five helicopters, including two Mi-17s and three Mi-24s. ”

This is very weighty, there are really not many models that can achieve the record of shooting down in air combat after World War II, and it is rare for a South African light attack aircraft to have such good results.

Even if it is a downed helicopter, this is still worth mentioning, after all, the Mi-24 is not a lamb to be slaughtered, and people are still wearing the name of armed helicopters!

It must be known that in the Iraqi army of the Iran-Iraq war, this Mi-24 is directly face-to-face with a fixed-wing military fighter, and the final result is even more shocking to everyone's attention, this guy actually shot down Iran's F-4 fighter gorgeously, which is simply creating history, and the so-called rabbit and eagle routine are probably nothing more than that.

Now South Africa's light attack aircraft shot down a lot of Mi-24s, which is still somewhat proud, isn't it?

Anyway, Wang Zhengguo was very happy in his heart: "Yes, it seems that this model is indeed very successful, no wonder it is still in production, as long as it can meet the needs of the army, can defend the country, and defeat the enemy, it is a good aircraft." ”

Next to the production line of the Impala Trainer attack aircraft, it is natural that South Africa introduced another military fighter to produce, the Mirage 3 production line from France, to be precise, it should be called the final assembly line now, after all, many important components of the Mirage 3 were imported in the early years of production.

It is precisely because South Africa cannot produce the Mirage 3 completely independently, and after the embargo, the final assembly line was downgraded to an overhaul line, specializing in overhauling various types of Mirage series fighters.

At this time, it is possible to complete the task of overhauling the Mirage 3 fighter without relying on French technology, and it is no wonder that South Africa planned to take the Mirage 2000 technical route, indeed, in terms of their technology, the risk of doing so is minimal, and the benefits can be barely accepted.

I didn't say anything in this place, and then walked out of the factory and came to the tarmac behind the factory, just looking at the degree of desolation, it was like an airplane cemetery, and most of the planes parked here were retired and waiting for organ donation.

Wang Zhengguo has seen nearly 20 Mirage 3 fighters whose fuselage is still intact but the engine is gone, and there are even some twin-engine Mirage 1 interceptors next to them, and these planes are still being pushed into a simple hangar for storage, which is completely different from other open-air rags.

"These Phantom fighters..... Is it because of the lack of engines that it has to be mothballed now?"

For the second-generation aircraft such as Mirage 3 and Mirage 1, the body can extend its service life through overhaul and life extension, but the supporting engine is different, usually it is only a few hundred hours of life, and it seems that the maximum total life of the Atta 9 series engine does not exceed 600 hours.

Such a short engine life, compared with the total life of the aircraft, is not a level at all, as far as the Phantom 3 is concerned, as long as you pay attention to maintenance, do a life extension in the later stage, it is completely possible for the entire life cycle to reach 6000 hours, which means that it is possible for an aircraft to fly and scrap 10 engines.

In the early years of South Africa, after the introduction of the Phantom series, the supporting engine has already reached the time of exhaustion, and now because of the embargo, it is impossible to buy the supporting Atta 9, without the engine, it is natural to ground and mothball some aircraft, which is a very normal thing.