Üstad, I am still in favor of cautious forecasts. Don't jinx it. lol
The date of December 27, 2023, when Kaan will make its first flight, will already be remembered as the date of our ascent to the top league. Platforms such as KAAN, KE-II and ANKA-IV, Hurjet Naval will provide the capability demonstration in terms of the most advanced system. And all this will come to life within 10 years, as you say.
But the indispensable pillar of a complete and competent national aviation industry, right down to the capillaries, is civil aviation. The experience built up in the military field needs to move towards a civilian branding at a competitive level. For this, we need a lot of integrators, system engineering, design and test companies. Some of the leading capital structures for the country's industry need to enter the aviation field more strongly, not on the service side, but on the manufacturing and R&D side. I think this is the part that will take time, and this is also, as you know, a feature of the infrastructure of French aviation, which constitutes its unique national structure.
In our country, we have around 50 globally competent companies that supply systems/manufacturing parts to international aviation giants, spread across a wide range of production activities. We have very valuable clusters such as OSTIM/OSSA and aviation companies like jewels within these clusters. It is really ridiculous that the whole burden is on TAI's shoulders. At the moment, the main challenge for an enterprise that wants to produce airplanes in Turkiye is the costs of initial aircraft development, design and testing activities, but there are really incredible advantages, especially in terms of production planning. As a matter of fact, we have started to see some small initiatives, which currently involve the localization of already developed platforms through foreign acquisitions. There is a need for more, and for this, we need some 'babayiğits'. Esp the ones who have tripled even quintupled the size of their wealth in dollar terms in the last 5-10 years. Someone need to tell them, "you can't always take, enter more strategic sectors to give some of them back'
The revival of Kayseri TOMTAŞ is great news. But we need much more. For example, the narrow-body civil aircraft issue that we talked a lot last decade. This will not be a blessing, a private JV enterprise of considerable size (like TOGG, for example, or İGA) that sees this opportunity now could make an incredible fortune in the future. The automotive industry is not the only one undergoing huge changes, civil aviation is in the midst of major developments, and companies that see these new trends and technological breakthroughs in the near future will have their own special place among the giants.
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