The TAI TF-X KAAN - What Just Happened
Return of the Khans This week, Türkiye became the latest nation in the exclusive club at the top of the military aviation hierarchy: the countries that have designed, built, and flown a domestic, modern jet fighter prototype. Turkish Aerospace Industries, a state-owned manufacturer and designer, flew their TF-X prototype ( nicknamed and stylized KAAN , meaning ruler or king; see “Khan”) for the first time. It's a serious accomplishment, all the more impressive for how new Türkiye's military aviation industry is. In the last two decades, they've leapfrogged from small drones to multirole manned jets. There's a lot of reason to take Türkiye's military aviation industry seriously, for all that it’s new. The multirole, jet-powered manned fighter is a serious step forward for Türkiye - not least because of its relationship in design heritage and operational framework to the (in my opinion) more impressive Kızılelma multirole, jet-powered unmanned aircraft. Not