A New Zealand-built aeroplane with rural DNA may be about to get some royal links to weave into its rollercoaster biography, on the prime minister’s latest trade mission.
The NZ trade delegation visiting Singapore, Philippines and Thailand aims to strengthen bilateral ties and with that has come strong interest in the SuperPac XSTOL (for “extremely short take-off & landing”) aircraft, manufacturedin Hamilton by NZAero.
NZAero CEO Stephen Burrows said the company has the opportunity to sell the plane to Thailand’s Department of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation to work as a drought-busting, pollution-damping craft seeding clouds to generate rainfall.
“At the start of every year the department initiates a cloud-seeding programme to stimulate artificial rain and dampen down fine particulates in the air caused by vehicle emissions and agricultural practices, as well as mitigating dry weather conditions in the main crop-growing areas.”
The operation uses a fleet of 30 rainmaking aircraft, preventing forest fires and encouraging precipitation around the country. The deal could be a $37 million boost to the company’s revenue stream.
The SuperPac is a redesigned version of the 750XL craft that had been manufactured by Pacific Aerospace in Hamilton since 2001.
In 2003 one of the new 750XL craft crashed into the ocean 500km off the California coast on a delivery flight from Hamilton to a customer, killing the pilot whose body was never recovered. Later investigation determined the plane crashed as a result of fuel loss caused by a leaking fuel cap.
The 750XL drew media attention again in 2016 when one was photographed in North Korea, having been sold to China then illegally exported there. Pacific Aerospace ultimately pleaded guilty to charges of illegal exporting of aircraft parts indirectly to North Korea.
Pacific Aerospace went into liquidation in early 2021, and was bought out by NZSkydive, changing its trading name to NZAero last November.
The 750XL had its design roots in the PAC Cresco, in turn based on the much beloved Fletcher FU-24 aerial topdressing plane. The Fletcher was an icon in NZ’s aviation history as the first designed specifically for aerial topdressing in NZ.
The SuperPac has been likened to a Hilux for the skies by NZAero’s chief pilot, and was released late last year.
A significant boost to its performance comes from a powerful 900 horsepower turbo prop engine that delivers 40% faster climb rate and 10% faster cruise speed than its predecessor.
Burrows said NZ has a 50-year history of supplying aircraft to the Thai government, having sold 72 planes and many millions of dollars’ worth of parts over the decades.
The SuperPac retails for about $5 million each and has been developed to perform well in hot, humid, high-altitude climates and be capable of carrying a 2 tonne payload over 4000m terrain, with minimal impact on fuel efficiency or performance.
A special feature of the plane is the dust-free hopper that can be calibrated to release electronically using precise GPS co-ordinates, or manually by the pilot.
“We would be able to migrate them from their current labour-intensive process where dry ice and salt are manually fed from sacks through a hole in an aircraft, to our new model,” Burrows said.
The SuperPac offers a variety of configurations beyond aerial topdressing-type applications, including medivac, search and rescue, skydive deployment, firefighting and geophysical surveys.
“They could reduce their fleet size by about 50% with each SuperPac being capable of delivering twice the payload of their current aircraft, and convert the aircraft from rain making to pollution control or even firefighting – within half an hour.
“We are also looking at customising rainmaking technology for this market using an aircraft-mounted flare able to be deployed from the back of the plane into the atmosphere, during droughts or periods of intense air pollution,” he said.
The company is also exploring options for sale to the Philippines and Singapore as both countries increase their defence budgets in coming years.
