Peregrine Aerospace: Building a new South African aircraft design capability

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South Africa’s aerospace industry has taken another step towards expanding its local design and certification capability with the unveiling of Peregrine Aerospace, a new partnership between Henley Air, Jonker Sailplanes and On Track Technologies.

The initiative was announced at the Aerospace Industry Support Initiative (AISI) 20-Year Commemoration at Waterkloof Air Force Base, bringing together Henley Air’s rotorcraft operations and maintenance expertise, Jonker Sailplanes’ aircraft design and certification experience, and On Track Technologies’ engineering, precision manufacturing and composite capabilities.

The partners intend to establish a jointly owned, SACAA-approved aircraft design organisation, providing a shared platform for design, development, certification and engineering work. The objective is to reduce dependence on imported engineering solutions while shortening the route from locally developed concepts to certified aviation products.

The announcement also marked the completion of Henley Air’s AISI-supported Bell 222/230 camera-mount development programme, demonstrating the type of local engineering capability that Peregrine aims to build upon.

Henley Group Executive Chairman Dr André Coetzee said the initiative is intended to give South African operators access to locally developed aviation solutions that can meet international standards while remaining commercially sustainable.

Importantly, Peregrine Aerospace is currently a partnership initiative rather than an operationally approved design organisation. The founding declaration signed at Waterkloof is ceremonial, with the corporate structure, scope of work and SACAA approval process still to be finalised.

For South Africa’s aerospace sector, however, the concept represents a significant pooling of existing expertise. Rather than each company maintaining its own design and certification infrastructure, Peregrine aims to create a common capability that can support future aircraft, rotorcraft, systems and advanced manufacturing programmes.