South Africa's first domestically-designed aircraft since the ill-fated Denel Rooivalk attack helicopter - conceived during apartheid to fight insurgents, but a subsequent flop in the export market - will take to the air early next year. The AHRLAC, which stands for advanced high-performance reconnaissance light aircraft, is a two-seat, single-engine pusher, and the programme has attracted much market interest throughout the world, according to the company behind it, Paramount.
Privately-owned Paramount is not your typical defence firm, and its founder and chairman Ivor Ichikowitz not your typical defence executive. With a background in theatre, Ichikowitz was a supporter of the African National Congress during the apartheid era, and founded Paramount in 1994 when he saw an opportunity to create a "solutions company" to exploit the country's niche expertise in security and defence technology once export markets opened to the rest of Africa. Now one of South Africa's most successful entrepreneurs, his interests include a game resort, mining companies and property.
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