A lot of new infos which are great, but in the same time this article is a damn mess.
In the article it says "The Critical Design Review (CDR) Phase of the HÜRJET [...] was completed in early March 2021. According to original schedule the CDR Phase should have been completed in August 2020 (To+36 months)."
Then it continues to mention "[...] on February 26, 2021 TUSAŞ President & CEO Temel KOTİL disclosed that HÜRJET prototype will perform its maiden flight in December 2022, after the completion of the detailed design, prototype production and ground testing phases. While talking to TRT Radio 1 at the National and Domestic Program on December 4, 2020 TUSAŞ President & CEO KOTİL had previously underlined that the first HÜRJET prototype would execute its maiden flight on March 18, 2023, when the 108th anniversary of the Çanakkale Naval Victory will be celebrated."
Which makes zero friggin sense. You delay your PDR, CDR but are now actually ahead with the maiden flight schedule? What in earth does this mean?
Then I've continued reading and got to the point where its mentioned "According to project schedule the 1st HÜRJET prototype would be rolled-out in December 2021 and to perform its maiden flight in February 2022 (To+60 months), the 2nd HÜRJET prototype, on the other hand, is planned to perform its maiden flight in August 2022 (To+64 months) but this schedule seems to could not be accomplished".
Now that makes sense. That "project schedule" is probably what that would have been published in 2017 when the project was officially started, akin to what TAI made public in 2018 when they officially started the development of the TF-X. So it is reasonable to think that the original plan was to do CDR by August 2020, which has been delayed to March 2020, therefore the first flight which was planned for February 2022 has been delayed to December 2022.
I don't think that this contradiction within the article is to blame the reporter who wrote this but his sources of information, which in this case is TAI and Temel Kotil. This is exactly the problem with anything Turkish. How come does, not anyone else, but a President & CEO of TAI mess these dates up? I get where that date of March 2023 comes from but in the broader context now it makes zero sense. Furthermore, this ain't the problem that is limited to only Temel Kotil. As I have stated countless times, the guys from SSB, guys from TEI, guys from TAI and other Turkish firms talk about some different schedule way too often, as if they are working with different projects. Before doing any PR works and interviews, the Turkish officials should all first sort out these hot mess of contradicting timelines and come up with something unified.
Lastly, as written in the article, the Hurjet will be "Turkey’s first indigenously developed supersonic aircraft that will pave the way for the MMU/TF-X".
Now we have to remember the news from earlier this year that the CDR of TF-X has been greatly accelerated and the CDR that was planned for late 2022~early 2023 has been brought forward to early 2022.
This speaks of a lot of things. If the knowledge gained from Hurjet were really that important for the TF-X program, delays of the Hurjet development should have affected the development of TF-X as well but in reality it was the exact opposite. Hurjet delayed while TF-X accelerated. This obviously makes no sense because, just like written in the article, the Hurjet is supposed to be the "first Turkish developed supersonic aircraft" and only gives me even more confidence to assume BAE is doing most of the work for TF-X, doing their job for the money they've been paid from Turkey. It also makes sense now why the Brits are so enthusiastic working in this project as well.
What further backs my opinion is the excerpt from the article :
"Stirling Dynamics of the UK announced that they secured a new contract from TUSAŞ to provide technical assistance in the areas of loads and aeroelastics for the HÜRJET aircraft program. This contract builds on previous support provided by Stirling Dynamics, which was initial consultancy to support TUSAŞ up to the HÜRJET’s Preliminary Design Review (PDR). Under the new contract, Stirling Dynamics will support TUSAŞ’ engineering team as they work towards Critical Design Review (CDR). Stirling Dynamics’ engineers will provide support in several formats involving training and guidance, expert review, and off-site work packages. Technical areas of interest include flight and gust loads, buffet, flutter, and validation testing."
This only translates into "Turkey lacks expertise in designing supersonic aircraft, so they need help in this regard". There's no wonder and its fairly straight forward.
