 |
|||
LIMA
2013 Langkawi International Maritime & Aerospace exhibition 26 - 30 March 2013 Langkawi, Malaysia |
|||
Dassault Rafale at LIMA Langkawi Air Show 2013 |
|||
| The pilot and his rafale the latest and most advanced technologies of multirole aircraft. | |||
Flying
the Rafale for fighter jet pilot Michael “Mikael” Brocard,
42, is quite a breeze. Even with 4,000 flying hours of which 1,400 (hours)
are with the Rafale, he still gets excited and look forward to taking
the Rafale to the skies every time. And he has a very good reason for
it. |
|||
 Rafale fighter jet pilot Michael “Mikael” Brocard. |
|||
The Rafale is power packed with the latest and most advanced technologies that make flying this multirole aircraft a joy and with almost effortless! Thanks to the capability of the Rafale, he can manoeuvre the aircraft literally like an agile dancer in the skies. For this 20-year veteran in flying fighter jets, the Rafale is the first aircraft with many capabilities as attested by its ability to carry out different missions in one sortie. “From air-to-air, air-to-ground, air-to-sea and reconnaissance, the Rafale takes them all on! It replaces the single mission aircraft that were in use prior to this,” Mikael said enthusiastically. His enthusiasm is no surprise considering that the Rafale replaced 7 types of legacy aircraft in the French Air Force and the French Navy. As a pilot, Mikael finds it very easy to switch from one capability to another and the controls are literally at his finger tip inside the cockpit. “The Rafale’s highly advanced technologies take a lot of the (work) load factor off the pilot,” he said. |
|||
 The Rafale multirole fighter aircraft at LIMA 2013, aerospace defence exhibition in Langkawi, Malaysia. |
|||
| For the pilot, it is also definitely heartening to know that the survivability of the Rafale is enhanced by the two engines, active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, low observability requirements, electronic warfare suit, accurate and robust situation awareness as well as high fire power. All these are very important to Mikael who has been involved in missions in Kosovo in 1998 and 2000, in Iraq in 1999 and 2002 and in Afghanistan in 2007. Mikael, whose father was with the French Air Force said, “The Rafale is certainly combat-proven! And it is an honour to have the opportunity to fly this very same aircraft which was used in missions before, at the LIMA ’13 airshow.” Mikael is the Solo Display Pilot who has been flying Rafale for the daily demonstrations at LIMA ’13. Both the Rafale which are at the LIMA ’13 for the flying demonstrations belong to the French Air Force and are the same aircraft that were engaged in external combat missions that the Air Force was involved in before this. |
|||
Video
Rafale LIMA 2013 Day 4 |
|||
The pilot and his rafale the latest and most advanced technologies of multirole aircraft 3003131
- Posted On
