What was the South African M.B.326 called?

The MB-326 produced in South Africa was known as the Impala. Behind the name change lies an industrial agreement: in 1964 South Africa obtained a license to build the Aermacchi MB-326, the Italian-designed jet trainer, and the work fell to the Atlas Aircraft Corporation. Production of the first variant, the Impala Mk I, began in 1966, two years after the license was secured.

The South African Air Force (SAAF) did not wait for domestic production to start operating the type: it first received an initial batch of 40 aircraft imported directly from Italy. Local manufacturing came later and ended up being far larger. Atlas's production lines turned out around 125 Impala Mk I aircraft for the SAAF, a number that comfortably exceeded the finished examples bought abroad. The result was that the bulk of South Africa's fleet of the type was locally built, with the aircraft that arrived from Italy serving as the program's first stage.

The Impala Mk I was not limited to pilot training. It was suitably equipped to perform both roles: trainer and armed ground-attack platform. That dual nature defines the kind of aircraft South Africa chose to build under license from the Italian design: a jet that could be used to train crews while also being deployed, armed, against ground targets. That combination explains the size of the production run, far larger than the initial purchase from Italy, and the central role the Atlas Aircraft Corporation took on in the program from 1966.