The Jet World Masters 2013 competition was recently held in Switzerland and Festo was happy to provide assistance to the South African team. The competition brings together the best scale jet aircraft model builders and pilots who compete for the international title. The South African teams placed 22^nd and 31^st respectively in their category (F4J - 20 kgs), coming 12^th overall amongst the competing countries.

SA quality gifted

Quite a stir was created among Festo staff when team members Oloff Schoeman and Boet Deneyschen took their L39 Albatros jet replica to the Festo Isando offices before leaving for the competition. “It was really interesting to see how it incorporates Festo components as part of the fuel system” says Jaco van Sittert, a member of the National Contact Centre team who promoted the team sponsorship.

“Traditionally, the competing teams present each other with a gift at the competition. Festo provided the South African team with connectors which they used to build a device for refuelling the aircraft. And this was also their gift to the other countries teams,” van Stittert explains.

Interesting specs

The model jets reach an impressive top speed of 300km/h and are judged not only on their speed and manoeuvrability but also the accuracy of matching the look of the jet to the original, ‘big brother’ jet. Powered by a model turbine engine they can travel a maximum distance of 40kms in a 500m radius of the pilot and they do this in an amazing eight minutes.

“As an innovator company, it was really exciting for us to be involved, in some small way, in this competition and we are proud to have had the opportunity to do something to support the teams flying the South African flag,” concludes van Stittert.

See www.jwm2013.com for further details on the competition.