Aerospace and defence company Incomar is adding new aircraft to its fleet to further assist flight testing and development work, with business and trainer jets amongst those in the pipeline.
With a focus on systems design, development and integration; testing on a range of platforms; product development; and flight testing and support, Incomar operates from two hangars at Wonderboom National Airport, three offices in Gauteng, and a flying school in Robertson, Western Cape. It has multiple aircraft dedicated to flight testing, including a Cessna 208 Caravan that is used for testing electro-optical systems, camera pods, synthetic aperture radars etc. A Vans RV-7A is used for flight test instrumentation development and flight modelling.
Incomar CEO Lance Wellington revealed that the company has acquired an Aermacchi AM.3C Bosbok which it aims to use as a light weapons development support platform. A Learjet 35 business jet has been acquired for high-speed testing and will arrive by year-end – it will support missile testing. The company’s jet fleet will be further expanded with the acquisition of L-39 Albatros jet trainers.
Wellington, speaking at the recent Aerospace Simulation and Training Symposium in Pretoria, explained that Incomar was established in 1999 with a focus on flight testing and avionics integration. It offers full flight physics and aeronautical engineering capabilities, including stores clearance and integration, ground vibration testing, aero modelling and simulation etc. Mechanical, hardware and electronic engineering covers structural design and analysis, development of avionics enclosures, thermal management and analysis, printed circuit board development, and firmware development.
On the software side, Incomar can do software engineering and regarding avionics can develop mission computers, flight computers, stores management systems and ground control systems. The company can test and integrate benches and consoles. It has been building mission computers, flight computers, stores management systems, and ground control systems for a number of foreign clients.
“We can take a project from full design to analytics, measuring and confirming the design,” Wellington said, emphasising Incomar’s strong aero modelling and simulation capabilities.
For flight testing, Incomar employs Class I and II experimental test pilots and flight test engineers who can perform basic and full experimental testing of aircraft and systems – for example, Incomar pilots were the first to fly Paramount’s Ahrlac/Mwari, and its pilots have amongst others tested a Hensoldt sensor pod on the company’s Caravan.
Incomar is part of the privately owned Arya Group. It was grown and developed together with Mongezi India, who has worked extensively in the aerospace, defence and civil security sectors (he served as Chief of Aviation Security for South Africa, for example). Incomar has grown rapidly in recent years, and now employs more than 240 people.
