Fancy a flight in the latest jet trainer?

If so, Alenia Aermacchi of Italy has a competition you might want to enter. It’s to name their latest advanced jet trainer, the M-346.

The first flight of the M-346 took place in July 2004. It’s about to enter production. It’s a twin-engined design, fast and highly maneuverable, designed to train pilots to handle the latest fighter aircraft. The video clip below shows it being demonstrated at the Farnborough air show in England in July this year. The action begins about one minute, ten seconds into the video.

The rules of the competition state:

The main goal of the competition is to associate the M-346 with a name that reinforces its key distinctive elements and its image itself on the global market. A “name” that will underline the common approach of the Finmeccanica aircraft family, which already includes the MRCA “Tornado”, EF2000 “Typhoon” and C-27J “Spartan”.

Naming aircraft is also a common practice on the international market, with examples the F-15 “Eagle”, F-16 “Fighting Falcon”, the F-18 “Hornet”.

The competition is open to anyone of age 18 or over.

. . .

RULES

All entries for the M-346 competition must meet the following criteria:

• the proposed name must be coherent with the characteristics of the aircraft, whether in terms of shape, technical features, use, etc.;
• the proposed name must be internationally recognisable, of high impact and easily memorised;
• the proposed name must not replicate or recall other names already in use on other aircraft.

Entries must be submitted from 20 October to 23 November 2008, exclusively through the internet by using the dedicated website http://concorsom346.aermacchi.it.

Participants will be asked to provide their personal data, the proposed name and its rationale. Only one entry per person will be accepted.

All entries will be examined no later than 15 December 2008 by a specially appointed committee comprising representatives Alenia Aermacchi, Alenia Aeronautica and Finmeccanica. All decisions will be final and no correspondence will be entered into. The selection of the name for the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 will be made in the presence of a public official, in accordance with law 430/2001, article 9, paragraph 1.

Should the same name be proposed by two or more participants, the committee will select the winner based first on the rationale and then, if necessary, by a random draw. Winners will be notified by telephone and then by letter.

The prizes shall consist in:

1st Prize: A flight in the M-346, a visit to the Alenia Aermacchi factory in Venegono Superiore plus a visit the Italian Air Force Museum at Vigna di Valle – Bracciano (Rome);

2nd Prize: Visit to the Alenia Aermacchi factory in Venegono Superiore plus a visit the Italian Air Force Museum at Vigna di Valle – Bracciano (Rome);

3rd Prize: Visit to the Alenia Aermacchi factory in Venegono Superiore.

All prizes will assign within 180 days from the closing of the competition and all the travel expenses will be included.

Well, there you have it. Can you think up a good name for this advanced jet trainer? If so, click on the link and submit your suggestion. You might win an all-expenses-paid trip to Italy, plus one of the prizes listed above.

I’m certainly going to give it a try. Considering the number of mistakes flight students make, I’m thinking of suggesting they call it the ‘Blunder-Bus’ . . . but I somehow suspect that name wouldn’t win! I’d better try for something more ‘commercial’, methinks.

Peter