Bit o' History: SAF's 5 year plan (HoI4 South Africa's 1st aviation focus)

[billcorr]

In 1934, South Africa had big plans for expanding its military...a 5 year plan.

But because of different reasons (rea$on$$$$?), South Africa did not commit to its 5 year plan.

Here is some background information regarding South Africa's first aviation focus named

"Commit to the Five-Year Plan"

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www.ajol.info

 

[billcorr]

ibid

 

[eastcoastceojam]

Given this historical background, it's disappointing that (in BBA) South Africa is one of the few members of the Allies to start with zero airplane techs researched:

 

[billcorr]

Given this historical background, it's disappointing that (in BBA) South Africa is one of the few members of the Allies to start with zero airplane techs researched:

Noted, SAF does not start the game with any aviation technologies researched.

Right. Some of the other Commonwealth nations do have some aviation technologies already researched.

But what was the state of South Africa's home aviation industry on 1 January 1936?
For fighter technology and production, please see

Interwar Fighters: do the right nations in HoI4 start with fighter technology compared to a list?

The purposes of this thread are to: Determine if nations that produced at least one fighter model in real life anytime between 1920 and 1935 are identified in HoI4 as having "Interwar Fighter Technology". Identify nations that are awarded...

forum.paradoxplaza.com

Note that South Africa is not on that list of nations that researched and produced fighters prior to 1936.

My understanding (and I could be wrong), SAF did not research, or more importantly, build any engines, planes, etc.

And that may well be the case for other Commonwealth nations, too. Therefore, to be more historically accurate, those other nations (I'm looking at you, RAJ), would have their starting aviation technologies removed. Or at least nerfed to reflect the state of affairs that existed on 1 January 1936.

 

[billcorr]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fighter_aircraft

According to that Wikipedia article, South Africa did not produce any fighter aircraft in the interwar years.



It might have been possible that they assembled planes from kits imported from another nation.

One of our dear readers may have further information on that.

 

[billcorr]

No plan for SAF airplane production in the 5 year plan.

In the article cited above, "Oswald Pirow's Five- Year Plan for the Reorganisation of the Union Defence Force, 1933-1939" , the author describes Oswald Pirow's air force plans, but the article did not mention anything about SAF research or production of aircraft or aircraft parts.

Here's the goal of the 5 year plane plan:

Other readings and articles (not included in this thread yet), did describe Oswald Pirow's commitment to civil aviation. Under his leadership, South Africa acquired approximately 29 Junker 86z during the interwar years. When SAF entered the war, the SAF government commandeered these aircraft, which were pressed into military service.

Further research may reveal that SAF's 5 year plan did actually plan for the research and building of aircraft in SAF.

If anyone does find information about SAF's aviation industry, please start a separate thread dedicated to that bit o' history.

Oh! And please mention that SAF Aviation Industry thread here in this thread for reference.

Good luck!