Morocco to get its first fully built indigenous aircraft

French manufacturer LH Aviation – creator of the LH-10 Ellipse - has launched a subsidiary in Morocco, called LH Aviation Maroc with a $5.5 million capital investment by Moroccan Karim Bennani and an expectation of a further $13million cash injection, to build a factory capable of producing up to 80 of the multi-role LH-10M light aircraft.
The LH -10M will be the first aircraft built entirely in Morocco. This version of the tandem LH- 10 Elipse will be adapted to operate in different environments of the African continent. The 19,000 sq.m facility could be completed as early as the Q1 2015.
The manufacturer sees great opportunities for Africa and the Middle East, particularly with a manufacturing base in Morocco. Already LH has sold the type to Benin, South Sudan and the UAE with five aircraft already operational and six more currently in production.
Demonstration pilot and head of flight operations, Philippe Herrenschmidt, said the Ellipse has excellent visability and can be used in a wide range of missions.
The LH-10 offers a number of ‘plug and play’ systems amd can be fully reconfigured in less than an hour. It can be used as a cost-effective border control or surveillance aircraft with operating costs at a fraction of a helicopter. According to Herrenschmidt the current 100hp Rotax engine can deliver 155ktas and just 10 litres an hour fuel burn.
The company is believed to be studying a second generation of the aircraft which could move the fuel tanks from the wing to allow hard points to allow four TDA-Thales rockets to be carried. A new 160hp engine could take cruise speed to 200 ktas.
It can remain on station for up to six hours and could even be used as a fast-jet trainer. “with great precision flight controls and excellent manouverability it just like flying a fighter,” said Herrenschmidt, himself a former Mirage pilot with the French Air Force.

Pilots Benoit Buffiere and Philippe Herrenschmidt with the LH-10 in Moroccan colours at the Moroccan Airshow