Speaking to Sabah Newspaper, TUSAŞ CEO Temel Kotil said, “We started to produce two more KAANs. Our plane can fly, but we are meticulous because of some tests. We will deliver 20 KAAN warplanes to the Turkish Air Force in 2028. The Block 10 package will have inferior features than F-35 and superior features than F-16.”
It is known that the aircraft has to pass some tests. Working on various prototypes simultaneously is one of the methods to speed up the testing process to get ahead of the schedule. When this plane would make, its maiden flight was a matter of hidden contention between Kotil and Professor İsmail Demir, the former head of the Defence Industry Agency (SSB). Kotil said that KAAN could fly by the end of 2023, and Demir noted that a board would decide on this flight, and aviation rules were written in blood. Both Demir and Kotil are graduates of ITU Aerospace Engineering. As of June, Demir is no longer the President of SSB.
