(Not even) the sky is the limit!

Here is a simple chronology of events that will eventually make Turkey one of the few most advanced countries in the world that can build their own fighter jets.

2002: (Quoting Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu in January 2015): ?Turkey needs Israel even to just have its battle tanks repaired.?

2004: Turkey launches an ambitious program to design, develop and manufacture an indigenous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (drone), the Anka. The Anka will be the first ever 100 percent Turkish aircraft (although it would feature foreign landing gear, take-off and landing systems, mission computer, and engine ? in addition to its Persian name).

2010: Then defense minister, Vecdi Gönül, announces that the government has officially pushed the button to launch feasibility studies on a landmark program for the design, development and manufacturing of what would become the first 100 percent Turkish fighter aircraft.

2011: The ruling Justice and Development Party?s (AKP) election billboards proudly show the Anka flying gallantly. The slogan on top of the billboards says: ?Our first aircraft is in the skies!? The billboard does not mention that the ?skies? in the photo are just photoshop.

2012: A real breakthrough in Turkish aerospace industry emerges: In an international competition with 249 contestants from 83 countries, the Turkish team ? competing with an all-Turkish airplane ? wins the team trophy in the Red Bull Paper Airplane Finals, in the ?longest airtime? category.

2013: One of the two prototypes of the Anka, sadly, crashes.

2014: The other Anka prototype is stationed at an air base in Batman in southeastern Turkey. But it is not operational, despite the fact that an original timetable promised that three Ankas...