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The Test Flight and Development Centre is a unit of the
South African Air Force "Through hardships to the stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , equipment ...
. It is a test flight and evaluation organisation. Due to
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
's
apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
policies of the 1960s, a number of countries instituted an arms boycott against it. This forced the SAAF to create an indigenous flight testing and development capability to research new technologies and methods and update old ones, and in this light a former graduate of the
Empire Test Pilots' School The Empire Test Pilots' School (ETPS) is a British training school for test pilots and flight test engineers of fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft at MoD Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, England. It was established in 1943, the first of its type. T ...
(ETPS) was appointed the SAAF's Chief Test Pilot in 1967 and tasked with improving and expanding the air force's test flying and evaluation capabilities. In 1974 another ETPS graduate took over, and was tasked with creating a specialised test flying and evaluation unit within the SAAF. The result was that the Test Flight and Development Centre was officially established on 10 August 1975 at
AFB Waterkloof Air Force Base Waterkloof is an airbase of the South African Air Force. It is situated on the outskirts of Pretoria, and is the SAAF's busiest airbase. The base's name, ''Waterkloof'', is Afrikaans. It means ''Water Ravine'' in English. Despite ...
. Over the next few years until the imposition of the mandatory
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
arms embargo against South Africa in 1977, additional pilots were sent to the ETPS and to EPNER in
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
to gain flight test experience and expertise. By 1979, the TFDC had grown large enough to merit the allocation of one of the hangar complexes at AFB Waterkloof, and in 1980 it established a satellite unit at Van Ryneveld Airfield in
Upington Upington ( Nama: //Khara hais) is a town founded in 1873 and located in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, on the banks of the Orange River. The town was originally called Olijvenhoutsdrift ('Olive wood drift'), due to the abundance of ...
to conduct weapons release tests. Once the
Denel Overberg Test Range The Denel Overberg Test Range is a weapons systems testing facility in the Overberg region on the south coast of South Africa, near Arniston, Western Cape. It includes launch pads and tracking systems. It was used to test the RSA series of Is ...
near Bredasdorp on the southern Cape coast had been completed, the TFDC moved to an adjacent airfield, now known as
AFB Overberg Air Force Base Overberg is an airbase of the South African Air Force at Bredasdorp on the Overberg district of the Western Cape province and is the host of the 525 squadron and the Test Flight and Development Centre. It is placed under command ...
.


Aircraft Fleet

As of July 2011 TFDC's permanent fleet consists of: *1x Agusta 109 LUH - #4006 *1x SAAB Gripen D - #3901 *1x BAe Hawk - #250 *1x Atlas Oryx - #1200 Other aircraft are operated on temporary detachment from squadrons as well as manufacturers such as
Denel Denel SOC Ltd is a South African state-owned aerospace and military technology conglomerate established in 1992. It was created when the manufacturing subsidiaries of Armscor were split off in order for Armscor to become the procurement agency ...
.


Projects


Hawk trainer

The TFDC's largest running project was the operational evaluation of the BAe Hawk Mk.120 and certification of its Adour 951 turbofan engine.
Weapons integration was also performed, with the SAAF's series of pre-fragmented bombs. The programme is now largely complete, with one Hawk airframe remaining on strength with TFDC, for further tests. Hawk has entered SAAF service as of 2006.


Taurus missile

In 2001 and 2002 it assisted the
German Air Force The German Air Force (german: Luftwaffe, lit=air weapon or air arm, ) is the aerial warfare branch of the , the armed forces of Germany. The German Air Force (as part of the ''Bundeswehr'') was founded in 1956 during the era of the Cold War a ...
in the testing of the Taurus stand-off missile, for which two
Panavia Tornado The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing multirole combat aircraft, jointly developed and manufactured by Italy, the United Kingdom and West Germany. There are three primary Tornado variants: the Tornado IDS (inter ...
aircraft deployed a number of times to
AFB Overberg Air Force Base Overberg is an airbase of the South African Air Force at Bredasdorp on the Overberg district of the Western Cape province and is the host of the 525 squadron and the Test Flight and Development Centre. It is placed under command ...
from
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
with the help of a SAAF
Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an American, long-range, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype first flown in 1954, the initial first flew on December 20, ...
aerial tanker. In 2009 the Spanish Air Force performed integration tests of the Taurus missile on their F-18 Hornet fighters at TFDC.


Gripen

The TFDC received the SAAF's first
JAS 39 Gripen The Saab JAS 39 Gripen (; English: ''griffin'') is a light single-engine multirole fighter aircraft manufactured by the Swedish aerospace and defense company Saab AB. The Gripen has a delta wing and canard configuration with relaxed stabilit ...
in 2006. The aircraft is flown through an extensive test programme, integrating weapons and SAAF specific avionics etc. During November 2007, the Gripen was shown publicly taking off loaded with eight 'dumb' bombs during weapons integration trials.


Luftwaffe Kormoran Anti Ship missile firings

During 2006 the German Air Force deployed six
Panavia Tornado The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing multirole combat aircraft, jointly developed and manufactured by Italy, the United Kingdom and West Germany. There are three primary Tornado variants: the Tornado IDS (inter ...
aircraft to TFDC for live Kormoran anti ship missile firings with a
German Navy The German Navy (, ) is the navy of Germany and part of the unified ''Bundeswehr'' (Federal Defense), the German Armed Forces. The German Navy was originally known as the ''Bundesmarine'' (Federal Navy) from 1956 to 1995, when ''Deutsche Mari ...
task group in joint exercises with
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
n forces.Janes.com - Luftwaffe fires Kormorans in South African exercise
/ref>


References


External links



{{coord, 34, 33.27, S, 20, 15.04, E, region:ZA_type:airport, display=title Squadrons of the South African Air Force Military units and formations established in 1975