 |
| Aeroscope Dec 2003 |
Here's another article I wrote, published in the Aeroscope Magazine in December 2003. It's about a little bit of history of the Defiant 300, how it was made and who the different companies and agencies that contributed to the making of the aircraft.
 |
| Remembering the name |
 |
| Aeroscope March 1989 |
I have posted here the article I wrote for Aeroscope Magazine in March 1989, one year after the Defiant 300 aircraft prototype successfully flew in February 1988, that was 22 years ago. Capt. Panfilo V. Villaruel Jr., was the pilot; he's also the project director who later became the chief of the former Air Transportation Office (ATO) then went on to head the Philippine Aerospace Development Corporation (PADC). He was involved in the NAIA Tower incident and was killed during the takeover. As far as his contribution to developing the local aircraft design and construction, Captain Villaruel's legacy remains as one of the most outstanding feats in the field of Philippine aeronautical engineering.
I was one of a group of young Filipino aeronautical engineers who were imbued with the idealistic notion that we could help develop the local aircraft manufacturing industry in the country by building an aircraft prototype of our own design. Well, we did build it and the Captain did fly it but we're still nowhere on the road to establishing the local aircraft manufacturing base. Here's the saga of the Defiant 300 aircraft.
