Turkish PM says gov't will revive aviation ambitions

ISTANBUL

 Turkey’s prime minister has said his government will realize previously abandoned plans to build the country’s first domestically designed jet plane.

Ahmet Davutoglu introduced a national airplane-construction project in Istanbul on Wednesday entitled ‘A Turk in the sky.’

Davutoglu said jets wholly designed and built by Turkish engineers would be flying as soon as 2019.

His remarks came after the country’s latest airport, located in southeastern province of Hakkari, was inaugurated on Tuesday. This followed the unveiling of Turkey’s first airport to be built on an artificial island off the Black Sea coast on Friday.

“The first plane to be built within the framework of Dornier 328 model will start flying in 2019," Davutoglu said today at Istanbul’s Halic Congress Center.

"Design of 628 model airliner will be completed in 2020. The first [628] flight will be in 2023.”

The planes will not only be used as passenger airliners but also as a military transport aircraft, VIP planes and air ambulances, Davutoglu said.

The prime minister recalled Nuri Demirag, one of Turkey’s first entrepreneurs, who founded an aircraft factory in Istanbul in 1936.

However, his factory was closed down in the 1950 after an unfortunate accident killed one of Turkey’s first aircraft engineers, Selahattin Resit Alan.

A law was introduced by the then-administration to stop sales of the Demirag’s Turkish-designed plane to foreign countries.

Speaking today, Davutoglu said the present government was building on the legacy of Demirag’s work.

“Years have passed… The administration of those who stopped that project has gone. Until this day, no government put this on their agenda until the AK Party came to the power.” 

“As a rising country, Turkey has been very late in developing its national defense industry, acted very slowly and lost decades,” he added.

During the ruling AK Party's 12-year term, Davutoglu says, Turkey’s aviation industry has grown 15 percent.

He stated that Turkey would be a country which no longer buys weapons, planes, trains and technology from other countries.

Turkey's main battle tank, known as the ALTAY, was set for mass production starting from this year and will enter into use by the Turkish Armed Forces by 2018.

The country's first locally manufactured assault helicopter 'ATAK' was also unveiled in 2014.