Quarterly S&T Survey: Training Aircraft

During a random survey of Halldale’s military and civil aviation departments’ postings from the last three months, I was struck by the number of reported milestones in the training aircraft sector.

On one bookend, last 6 November Elixir Aircraft signed a contract with Egnatia Aviation to add 12 Elixir aircraft to its current fleet of 18, with an option for three additional planes. And most recently, this 22 January, MS&T noted SkyAlyne and KF Aerospace announced their intent to acquire three De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 aircraft for RCAF Aircrew training.

In the interim 12 weeks, we posted six other contract announcement awards for military and commercial aviation training enterprises around the globe.

In the defense market, a Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA)-awarded contract will see French Air and Space Force, and French Navy pilot students trained on 22 new PC-7 MKX Pilatus aircraft and on 12 training simulators provided by Babcock. A second glimpse of this sector’s global reach noted Japan’s Ministry of Defense’s selection of the Beechcraft T-6C Texan II as the Japan Air Self-Defense Force's new primary training aircraft late in November.

In the commercial sector, one of several posted awards for Diamond Aircraft was a deal with Air India for the acquisition of three new twin-engine DA42-VI aircraft – with an option for six more – for Air India’s new Flight Training Organization.

Market Forces

Three training aircraft here, another 12 and 22 trainers there and soon the numbers of these platforms start to add up – with good reasons.

In the military market, defense departments are deciding to sunset legacy-era training platforms to better train their aspiring pilots and crews for their part in increasingly complex multi-domain operations. Concurrently, training pipelines are being strengthened to allow newly-minted pilots for assignment in fifth-generation aircraft, such as the Lockheed Martin F-35, that are increasingly entering military fleets around the globe.

In the adjacent civil aviation space, airline training organizations are expanding operations to support the current demand signals for more pilots from airlines across the community. The “on” signal for more pilots has been a persistent, recurrent message CAT readers have read from the outcomes of our events (most recently EATS 2024 and in department articles and postings.

Another development we’re following is the pace of innovation in underpinning technologies, specifically batteries, to support electric-powered aircraft from Pipistrel (by Textron eAviation) and others in this evolving sector. Electric aviation remains an R&D-intensive endeavor as noted in Textron’s 4Q Report “Textron eAviation segment revenues were $11 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, with a segment loss of $22 million, largely associated with research and development expense on new products.”

The suppliers of training aircraft appear to have the wind at their backs as they meet increased demand requirements from the military and commercial aviation sectors for more of their platforms. The author will take advantage of opportunities to remain current with this market by engaging with sector companies beginning with Cirrus Aircraft at WATS 2025.

More Quarterly Reports

Halldale looks forward to providing regular, future quarterly reports on other S&T sectors.