Diamond Aircraft’s special mission aircraft, DA62 MPP and DA42 MPP, are touring West Africa in October 2017. The airplanes and a compact version of Diamond’s groundstation solutions will be on static display at the African Airshow in Accra, Ghana from 24 – 26 October at stand number D16.
“After months of intensive efforts and in close cooperation with local partners, Diamond succeeded in scheduling highest level meetings with Air Forces, MoD as well as with large private service providers protecting their countries against drug smuggling, piracy, border crossing and illegal fishery activities,” says Markus Fischer, Sales Director Special Mission Aircraft, Diamond Aircraft Industries GmbH. “We had the unique opportunity to demonstrate the performance and capabilities of Diamond’s airborne solution in real scenarios. We flew about 30 hours of missions, providing data from the airplane to the ground without any technical incident on the aircraft or mission equipment. The full composite structure, no risk of corrosion, as well as the turbocharged heavy fuel engines very strongly supported Diamond’s sales arguments in using latest technology and state-of-the-art aircraft. The usage of Jet-A1 made the flight planning simple and allowed the most efficient and straight-lined leg planning. The average turn-around time on ground was only one hour due to the availability of Jet-A1 on the apron. No scheduled maintenance stop had to be coordinated due to the 100-hour maintenance intervals of the AE300/AE330 engines, which made the spare parts handling straight forward and simple – an absolute key element when operating complex aircraft in Africa. The circumstance that both aircraft will burn less than 1,400 USGAL or 5,320 liter in 120 hours over a distance of 8,260 NM is a statement of efficiency which cannot be ignored by any conscientious operating organization. Diamond has and will again demonstrate the outstanding sufficiency of the aircraft with regards to direct operating cost and maintenance.”
The DA42 MPP PANDION is a cost-effective maritime patrol turnkey solution, featuring two in-house designed components, the light weight maritime search radar NEPTUN and the commercial satellite communication system KOPERNIKUS, and an electro-optical and infrared gyro stabilized gimbal camera from SWE Systems. All parts are no ITAR which guarantees fast worldwide delivery on short notice.
The DA62 MPP is the next larger Diamond Surveillance aircraft featuring the latest in tracking and sensor technology. Potential customers have the possibility to experience firsthand the cabin volume and payload capability of the new DA62 MPP platform.
Diamond Aircraft offers a number of customized ground stations - designed to operate as the counterpart to its Special Mission Aircraft. They are easy to setup for in the field operations where different mission profiles can be handled from operators on ground. Standard functions of each variant are live video transmission from the airborne platform to the ground station(s) via different datalinks including META data, voice communications, mission planning and moving map, video management as well as secured connectivity with organizations’ headquarters. During the tour and at African Airshow, a version called Command Compact Station is demonstrated.
Diamond Aircraft Special Mission Turnkey Solution Concept
Like no other special mission aircraft supplier, Diamond Aircraft has taken its MPP concept to a high level 360° turnkey solution, offering a single point of contact, from supply of an aircraft to a full certified integration including sensors, data-links, ground stations, global support, spare parts, tooling, delivery and all corresponding pilot, operator and maintenance training.