The Federal Government has approved N2.3 billion for the local assemblage of Magnus training aircraft.
The project will be carried out at the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria in Kaduna State.
The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika in Abuja that the Nigerian aviation industry would soon move into the local manufacturing of aircraft.
He said that Nigeria would assemble the Sentinel variant locally, while the Magus would supply dozens of its aerobatic Fusion UL training aircraft.
Last year, Mangus signed an understanding with NCAT for the assemblage with the sale of its Fusion UL model.
Sirika also said that Nigeria would continue to assemble the Magnus aircraft and in no time the aviation industry will begin to make aircraft in the country.
He said the country will begin by assembling training aircraft and it will happen soon.
Sirika said: “And the total contract sum is N2.3 billion; the completion period is 18 months.’
“We were all trained like that as pilots; but because aeroplanes become more and more technologically advanced, the need for a spin and spin recovery didn’t arise, because they are becoming more and more sophisticated.
“But again, the world realised that we still get into spin or there is a need for this skill to be developed for recovery out of spin situations”.
Sirika said because of the advancement in aircraft manufacturing, manufacturers stopped producing trainers and that led to the scarcity of training aircraft. Per the Minister, Mangus began to plug the gap and started to produce aeroplanes that can get into a spin and out of it so that students can be trained on that.
He said: “It is our intention to produce them here, assemble them here in policy, when in the future, you know, sell them out to where we’re interested around the world. “So this will happen and I think the first one or two aircraft will happen here in Nigeria and to fly them within the remaining four months that we have as a government”.
Nigeria and Hungary began collaborating in January 2021 to enhance pilot training, the operation and maintenance of Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) payload.
