EADS Mako/HEAT

The EADS Mako/High Energy Advanced Trainer (Mako/HEAT) was a proposed high-performance jet trainer or light attack aircraft. The Mako emerged out of the AT-2000 project by the German aircraft manufacturer Dornier and the Italian aerospace company Aermacchi launched in the late 1980s. Following the withdrawal of Aermacchi in the mid 1990s, and a wave of aerospace consolidation in the 1990s, the European aerospace company EADS became the prime authority for the Mako. Various partnerships and opportunities were sought out for the type, early efforts included the South African Air Force, the South Korean Air Force and the United Arab Emirates Air Force - while memorandum of understandings (MoUs) were signed, it proved difficult to secure a launch customer for the Mako. One key opportunity that the Mako was heavily marketed towards was the Advanced European Jet Pilot Training (AEJPT), or Eurotrainer, programme, under which as many as 120 aircraft would been procured for service with as many as 17 different European air forces. However, this initiative was repeatedly delayed before the remaining prospective members declared their preference for a twin-engine design, closing out this opportunity to the Mako. EADS publicly acknowledged that around 60 aircraft would need to be ordered in order to formally launch the Mako programme. As of 2010, EADS had yet to announce a date for the aircraft's maiden flight; the Mako/HEAT project appeared to be defunct.

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