27 May 2026
South Africa has been designing and manufacturing world-class aircraft for over a century, and much of its current capability will be on show at September’s Africa Aerospace and Defence (AAD) exhibition in Pretoria.
The AAD organisers highlighted some of South Africa’s aviation achievements during Africa Month (May), looking back on the century of flight that has shaped today’s aerospace sector.
“When AAD first opened in 2000, it landed in a country with ninety years of aviation history already behind it. South Africa had built aircraft, broken world records, trained pilots and staged air shows that drew crowds in their tens of thousands. We were, from the beginning, the inheritors of something. This Africa Month, our 25th anniversary year – it is worth pausing to understand exactly what that something is,” the organisers wrote.
In 1891, James Price descended by parachute from a hot air balloon over Pietermaritzburg. The crowd had never seen anything like it. He would do it over a hundred times across southern Africa in the years that followed – not aviation as we know it, but something more important in that moment: a declaration, made on African soil, that the sky was not out of reach.
Powered flight arrived in South Africa in December 1909. A Voisin biplane over East London. Bristol Boxkites at Turffontein. By 1920, 17 years after Kitty Hawk – South African aviators had founded the Aero Club of South Africa. Long before AAD existed, this continent was already, quietly and purposefully, building its relationship with the air.
“From those grass roots is where we sow the seeds of passion for flight in our youth that go on to greater flying careers,” said Rob Jonkers, Aero Club of South Africa President.
Built here
In 1975, a teacher named Tienie Jonker started building a glider in his Bloemhof garage. His sons grew up beside it. Decades later, Attie and Uys channelled everything their father had taught them into the JS1 Revelation – a high-performance racing sailplane now exported across the globe and described by a three-time British world champion as genuinely world-class. When it first appeared on the international competitive circuit, it carried something South African in every rivet.
Peter Celliers designed the Celstar aerobatic glider in six months, took gold and silver at the 1989 World Glider Aerobatics Championships, then shipped it to Switzerland and the United States. The Rooivalk tells the same story at a different scale. Conceived, designed and manufactured on this continent by Denel Aviation, it remains one of the most sophisticated attack helicopters ever produced. The manufacturers and operators who exhibit at AAD are not a new story. They are the continuation of one that started in garages and drawing offices, the organisers emphasised.
25 Years
“In October 1929, Johannesburg held its first major air show at Baragwanath airfield. SAAF bombers flew formation overhead. Hundreds of cars lined the perimeter fence. The crowd pressed five deep against the roping, necks craned upward. What was being demonstrated that day went beyond aircraft. It was the idea — asserted in front of thousands — that this was our sky too.
“Through the decades that followed, South Africa built an air show culture, a world-class safety certification framework, precision display teams recognised internationally, and an institutional confidence in the air that belongs entirely to us. That confidence is what AAD was built on in 2000. It is what we carry, intact, into our 25th year,” AAD organisers said.
“Africa Aerospace and Defence is not simply an exhibition. It is the living proof of everything this history represents. The people who will watch the flying display from the Waterkloof flight line in September are the descendants of the crowds who pressed against the roping at Baragwanath in 1929. The exhibitors showcasing African-manufactured systems are the institutional successors of Tienie Jonker in his Bloemhof garage. The young people attending through the AAD Youth Development Programme carry the same potential that once turned a Drakensberg boy into a World Championships paraglider pilot.”
The AAD 2026 exhibition runs from 16-20 September at Air Force Base Waterkloof, with the first three days being trade days and the weekend days being air show days. Organisers expect over 200 exhibitors from 30 countries to take part, and more than 20 000 trade visitors and 40 000 general public visitors to attend Africa’s premier aerospace and defence exhibition.
The AAD organisers highlighted some of South Africa’s aviation achievements during Africa Month (May), looking back on the century of flight that has shaped today’s aerospace sector.
“When AAD first opened in 2000, it landed in a country with ninety years of aviation history already behind it. South Africa had built aircraft, broken world records, trained pilots and staged air shows that drew crowds in their tens of thousands. We were, from the beginning, the inheritors of something. This Africa Month, our 25th anniversary year – it is worth pausing to understand exactly what that something is,” the organisers wrote.
In 1891, James Price descended by parachute from a hot air balloon over Pietermaritzburg. The crowd had never seen anything like it. He would do it over a hundred times across southern Africa in the years that followed – not aviation as we know it, but something more important in that moment: a declaration, made on African soil, that the sky was not out of reach.
Powered flight arrived in South Africa in December 1909. A Voisin biplane over East London. Bristol Boxkites at Turffontein. By 1920, 17 years after Kitty Hawk – South African aviators had founded the Aero Club of South Africa. Long before AAD existed, this continent was already, quietly and purposefully, building its relationship with the air.
“From those grass roots is where we sow the seeds of passion for flight in our youth that go on to greater flying careers,” said Rob Jonkers, Aero Club of South Africa President.
Built here
In 1975, a teacher named Tienie Jonker started building a glider in his Bloemhof garage. His sons grew up beside it. Decades later, Attie and Uys channelled everything their father had taught them into the JS1 Revelation – a high-performance racing sailplane now exported across the globe and described by a three-time British world champion as genuinely world-class. When it first appeared on the international competitive circuit, it carried something South African in every rivet.
Peter Celliers designed the Celstar aerobatic glider in six months, took gold and silver at the 1989 World Glider Aerobatics Championships, then shipped it to Switzerland and the United States. The Rooivalk tells the same story at a different scale. Conceived, designed and manufactured on this continent by Denel Aviation, it remains one of the most sophisticated attack helicopters ever produced. The manufacturers and operators who exhibit at AAD are not a new story. They are the continuation of one that started in garages and drawing offices, the organisers emphasised.
25 Years
“In October 1929, Johannesburg held its first major air show at Baragwanath airfield. SAAF bombers flew formation overhead. Hundreds of cars lined the perimeter fence. The crowd pressed five deep against the roping, necks craned upward. What was being demonstrated that day went beyond aircraft. It was the idea — asserted in front of thousands — that this was our sky too.
“Through the decades that followed, South Africa built an air show culture, a world-class safety certification framework, precision display teams recognised internationally, and an institutional confidence in the air that belongs entirely to us. That confidence is what AAD was built on in 2000. It is what we carry, intact, into our 25th year,” AAD organisers said.
“Africa Aerospace and Defence is not simply an exhibition. It is the living proof of everything this history represents. The people who will watch the flying display from the Waterkloof flight line in September are the descendants of the crowds who pressed against the roping at Baragwanath in 1929. The exhibitors showcasing African-manufactured systems are the institutional successors of Tienie Jonker in his Bloemhof garage. The young people attending through the AAD Youth Development Programme carry the same potential that once turned a Drakensberg boy into a World Championships paraglider pilot.”
The AAD 2026 exhibition runs from 16-20 September at Air Force Base Waterkloof, with the first three days being trade days and the weekend days being air show days. Organisers expect over 200 exhibitors from 30 countries to take part, and more than 20 000 trade visitors and 40 000 general public visitors to attend Africa’s premier aerospace and defence exhibition.
