Amin Gepal Light Aircraft

[hesham]

Hi,

the Amin Gepal was a tandem two-seat low-wing trainer and touring monoplane,from the Kingdom of Morocco,
and appeared in four variants,MK.I,MK.II,MK.III & MK.IV,powered by one Pratt & Whitney PT6A turboprop engine.

AMIN Gepal

Projet d’avion d’entrainement de base marocain des années 1980.

aviationsmilitaires.net

 

[Kuno]

Would somebody know if the Gepal Mk III has ever flown? What trainer was obtaiend by the Moroccan Air Force instead of the Gepal Mk II (repectively Mk IV)?

 

[riggerrob]

The Royal Moroccan Air Force bought 24 T6 Texan II trainers from the USA. They are a version of the Pilatus PC-9 built by Beechcraft.

 

[Kuno]

Would you know, what year they obtained the "Texan II"?

 

[riggerrob]

Beechcraft announced the sale in October 2009 and the RMAF had at least one in service by February 2011.

 

[Kuno]

This is, what puzzles me a bit - the Gepal III (respectively Gepal IV) was thought to be built in the 1980ies.... so it took Morocco more than 25 years to finally obtain a new trainer aircraft?

(Note: I am not a specialist regarding Morocco's air force neither the never built A/C Gepal III/IV - I "stumbled" across this situation when researching the story of the AS-32 Turbo Trainer of FFA / Flug- und Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein. Apparently, after they could not receive orders from Switzerland, and a first joint venture with a foreign manufacturer did not materialize, they negotiated with the Air Force of Morocco... but this is another story).