Aero and Omnipol sign partnership to promote the L-39NG trainer aircraft

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World Defense & Security Industry News - Aero & Omnipol
 
 
Aero and Omnipol sign partnership to promote the L-39NG trainer aircraft
 
The Czech companies AERO Vodochody Aerospace and OMNIPOL have signed an strategic partnership agreement regarding L-39NG aircraft sales. In the new agreement, Omnipol becomes Aero’s strategic sales partner for selected territories, AERO announced on Feb. 5, 2016.
     
Aero and Omnipol sign partnership to promote the L 39NG trainer aircraft 640 001Aero L-39NG military trainer aircraft
(Credit: Aero Vodochody Aerospace)
     
For both companies it’s a return to their historical roots - until 1960, Omnipol was the exclusive exporter of L-29, L-39, and other aircraft types, and it successfully exported over 9,000 Czechoslovak-produced aircraft. Ladislav Šimek, president of AERO Vodochody, is certain this cooperation will lead to a significant increase in the sales potential of the L-39NG aircraft. “Given the fact that the L-39NG is the largest Czech military project of this century, it’s perfectly logical that the largest Czech producer of aviation and military technology would work together with the largest Czech dealer in military equipment. Our partner Omnipol is active commercially in over sixty countries worldwide, a significant portion of which operates L-39 aircraft,” added Šimek.

Omnipol CEO Michal Hon also sees the great potential of working together on the L-39NG project: “By expanding the spectrum of products and services we offer with the L-39NG-based training solution, we can now provide air forces around the world with a comprehensive package of services for training and tactical aviation, as we already complete logistics operations, for aviation as well as air defence and ground forces, for a number of our existing customers. The L-39NG is an extremely valuable export commodity for us. The aircraft has no direct competitor in its market segment, and furthermore, the worldwide fleet of training aircraft is due for a massive upgrade in the very near future.” The two companies will reveal the exact extent of the partnership at the Farnborough International Air Show in July of this year.

The L-39NG aircraft represents the most modern type of trainer produced by Aero, developed to offer air forces a technologically advanced alternative to operationally demanding and, for a wide variety of training tasks, inefficient competitive training types of the last generation. The L-39NG technology demonstration model with a new engine and avionics was flown in September 2015. The prototype of the newly-produced L-39NG aircraft, which will draw on the technological solutions proven on the demo model, should be ready to fly in September 2017. For existing users of the L-39, the transition to the L-39NG is conceived as a two-step process starting with upgrading existing aircraft with the new engine and optional avionics, followed by the transition to the entirely new L-39NG.