Transport Aircraft

Leonardo just delivered the first 2 of 32 AW149s to Poland fifteen months after the order was placed.

It can be done if you don't fuch around the contractor. We have a long history of being silly buggers.

If you don't believe me, once upon a time the cavalry corps wanted to replace its fleet of various makes and models of off road motorcycles.

Initial efforts hit a huge stumbling block when the Yamaha provided for evaluation was driven without oil in the gearbox. It seems those given the job of testing in D/Transport were unaware that 4 strokes need oil too, and thought the full coolant bottle was an oil reservoir. Yamaha never shared their wares here again, even though their XS400 continued in service long after their best before date.

KTM, who are famous for their off road motorcycles in international competition, offered their LC4 400, in the early 2000s, specially militarised, with hard luggage, and green as standard. ARW had been using motorcycles also, and were keen to get in on the action. MPs were invited, but wanted to play traffic cops, and demanded road bikes with blue lights instead. (KTM did a blue light option).

KTM brought one of the bikes to Ireland, for evaluation. Everyone with a 154 agreed it was perfect for the Cav role, and the ARW were particularly pleased.

D/Cav went to D/Transport (who look after these things) seeking to place an order. DoD got involved then, contacted KTM.

"We'd like to buy some of those motorbikey things please".

"Great, we can't wait to get involved, there are so many options that would suit your requirements in all areas. How many will you need?

"six initially, followed by a further 12 once those bikes have been accepted into service"

"Wow thanks, thats great, we were not expecting that. Six hundred it is."

"you misunderstand us, we mean six as in a half dozen."

"Our production line makes a wide range of types, we cannot rejig a line for just six! The Netherlands Have over 100, Germany Has something similar, we can't open a production line for a batch of less than 40."

"no deal so, we just bought 40 Deauvilles for ceremonial, can't be buying another 40 bikes the public will never see"

"OK then. Anyway must dash, Red Bull racing want to buy a batch of LC4 for their Dakar teams. They haven't even asked for an estimate. Bye now."

The UK are to buy H145s would they not just upgrade the ones they have in storage rather than but new ones?

The UK MFTS has seven H145s, called "Jupiter HT.1" in UK service. None are in storage. Source: https://www.scramble.nl/database/military/uk

The UK also uses H135s, called the Juno, for training. Also, five civil-registered H135s are stored at RAF Shawbury. Those may be the ones you had in mind.

Interesting to see a French Air Force Dassault Falcon 900 visiting Dublin today that was built in 1985 and delivered to the French military in November 1987. By contrast, the Irish G-IV was delivered in December 1991 and disposed of in January 2015.

I would also imagine that, given the size of the French Air Force and the large number of air frames they have at their disposal, that this aircraft doesn't have anywhere near the hours on it that our G-IV had.

You miss my point. This is French Government displaying French made aircraft to the world. "Buy from us, you'll get value for your money".

To Gulfstream or Lear, we are just another small client.

Tender out for new Ministerial transport aircraft. 10 passenger minimum and 4000nm range (with 8 pax plus luggage). Takes a lot of types out of the equation straight away.

So what's the chances when they get rid of the current learjet it will find a new lease of life and fly on with someone else?

Seen one of the CN 235's on the descent into Baldonnel earlier, is one or both of them still being used since the arrival of the 295s?

Must be getting cramped out there with four Casas??

Its a no brainer, but the new owner will have the deep pockets required to get big maint done my main contractor, instead of hoping the line techies will pull yet another miracle like the Lear at present. It enjoys long holidays alongside the Garda Offender in foreign workshops apparently.

Yes I was also impressed with the short lead time. It's almost as if the potential bidders already know what's expected, and just need to get the bids in. That means for an early 2024 decision.

Being honest, this has been on the boil for months now, if not longer. Ever since the taoiseach/tainiste had to get a chartered jet home because no other aircraft was available.

The tender, on initial viewing is not as tightly written as recent previous tenders that had a preferred outcome in mind. But look a bit closer...

The requirement for a new aircraft and an price indicated of €45m would rule out a commercial airliner. New: not enough budget. Second Hand, not allowed. We're looking at a bizjet.

4000nm range rules out small-medium bizjets. It is roughly the minimum range to go transatlantic. The domain of a large bizjet.

The ability the fit a DAS is preferred (as per the last three Air Corps tenders). This would suggest a manufacturer with military credentials.

The €45m price rules out the larger Global Expresses and Gulfstreams. They would exceed that figure by quite a margin.

One aircraft that ticks all of the above is the Dassault Falcon 6x. It has the range, is twin engined , has sufficient seating capacity, from a military manufacturer and is within budget.

That is one sexy beast!

It’s been long fingered for far too long as I think we can all agree, strange to see the tender pushed out just before the “Inaction Plan” this week though.

And somewhere in the comments will be someone asking about the FF or FG TD that approved planning when he was a councillow for a property his wife ended up owning... and demanding he resigns....