FMA IAe 33 Pulqui II

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FMA_IAe_33_Pulqui_II

The FMA IAe 33 Pulqui II (in the indigenous language Mapuche, Pulqúi: Arrow) was
a jet fighter aircraft designed by Kurt Tank in the late 1940s in Argentina,
under the Perón government, and built by the Fábrica Militar de Aviones (FMA).
Embodying many of the design elements of the wartime Focke-Wulf Ta 183, an
unrealized fighter project, the FMA envisioned the IAe 33 Pulqui II as a
successor to the postwar Gloster Meteor F4 in service with the Fuerza Aérea
Argentina. The Pulqui II's development was comparatively problematic and
lengthy, with two of the four prototypes being lost in fatal crashes. Despite
one of the prototypes being successfully tested in combat during the Revolución
Libertadora, the political, economic and technical challenges faced by the
project meant that the IAe 33 was unable to reach its full potential, and the
Argentine government ultimately chose to purchase F-86 Sabres from the United
States in lieu of continuing development of the indigenous fighter to production
status.

Like Dewoitine, German designer Kurt Tank, the former technical director of the
Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG, had been similarly hired in 1947 to work on a jet
fighter project for Argentina. Tank, along with 62 of his compatriots at
Focke-Wulf, had emigrated to Latin America to restart his career in aerospace
ventures. Surreptitiously entering the country with a passport identifying him
as Pedro Matthies, he found a warm welcome and did not maintain the subterfuge
of a secret identity. Along with his former employees, he was instrumental in
the evolution of the Instituto Aerotécnico into Argentina's military aircraft
factory, the Fábrica Militar de Aviones at Córdoba. Tank was both an engineer as
well as a test pilot, who had designed the Fw 190 fighter, but his design team
had also been responsible for the Focke-Wulf Ta 183, an unbuilt project that had
been declared the winner of the 1945 Emergency Fighter Competition. The
diminutive, swept-wing, jet-powered Ta 183, designed by Focke-Wulf
engineer/designer Hans Multhopp, had only reached the stage of wind tunnel
studies before the end of hostilities.

After his appointment as project director for a new indigenous fighter program,
Tank adapted the basic Ta 183 airframe for the Nene II engine, resulting in a
new design that bore only a passing resemblance to its forebear. The Nene was
larger, heavier and more powerful than the Heinkel HeS 011 turbojet that had
been planned for use in the Ta 183, and therefore required a new, redesigned
fuselage with a larger cross-section primarily due to the Nene's centrifugal
compressor rather than the HeS 011's axial compressor design.

Due to the similarity of the IAe-27a and Tank's redesign of the Ta 183, Juan
Ignacio San Martín, the director of the Institute merged the two parallel
projects as the IAe 33 Pulqui II. The fuselage of Tank's design was further
adapted to use the IAe-27a's undercarriage. The shoulder-mounted,
negative-incidence wings were swept back 40°, an even greater sweep angle than
that of the Ta 183, and given a small amount of anhedral. Comparable to the Ta
183's engine placement, the Nene engine was situated aft of the cockpit, near
the center of gravity with engine maintenance and service facilitated through
the removal of the tail section. The airframe featured a graceful, 50°
swept-back T-shaped empennage and a pressurized cockpit topped by a clear
bubble-type canopy, faired into the dorsal fuselage. Armor was provided around
the cockpit and a bulletproof windscreen was incorporated. Fuel capacity was
initially 1,250 l (275 Imp. gal.) internally and 800 l (176 Imp. gal.) in the
wings. Armament was planned to include four 20 mm cannon, a pair mounted in a
staggered, near-ventral position along each side of the fuselage slightly set
back from the jet intake.

Role
Fighter/Interceptor

Manufacturer
Fábrica Militar de Aviones (FMA)

Designer
Kurt Tank

First flight
27 June 1950

Retired
1960

Primary user
Fuerza Aérea Argentina

Number built
5 (1-static test, 4 flying prototypes)

Developed from
Focke-Wulf Ta 183

When the military junta came to power, the IAe 33 project was thrown into
disarray. The new government released many of the leading air force staff;
similarly, most of Tank's team was forced to leave Argentina with Tank himself
going to India, where he worked for Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, and later
developed the HF-24 Marut supersonic fighter.

In 1956, the air force, in an effort to gain political support, planned a record
flight from Córdoba to Buenos Aires to demonstrate the combat potential of the
IAe 33. The Pulqui II would fly 800 km, strafe an air force practice range in
the Buenos Aires area, and then return to Córdoba using only internal fuel. The
only oxygen equipment available for such a long flight was scrounged from a FMA
Meteor under repairs. Lt. Balado successfully completed the flight (including
the strafing demonstration) at an average cruise speed of around 900 km/h, but
the oxygen system failed on the return leg. The semi-conscious pilot managed to
perform an emergency landing at high speed, but the heavy landing and resulting
stress broke the landing gear, with the Pulqui II overrunning the end of the
runway, the aircraft being damaged beyond repair.

Shortly after Balado's record flight, the Argentine Air Force reviewed its
decision to acquire 100 Pulqui IIs for its fighter force. Based on the spares
and wing and fuselage components at hand, the Fábrica Militar de Aviones
asserted that ten aircraft could be constructed relatively quickly, however, the
remainder of the order would take five years to complete. Meanwhile, plans for
an alternative replacement of the hundred aging Meteor F4s obtained in the late
1940s that constituted the backbone of the Air Force continued, initially
centered on the acquisition of 36 Canadair F-86 Mk 6 Sabres, an idea which was
dropped in 1956 because the Central Bank was unable to provide the necessary
foreign exchange.

Specifications (3rd and 4th prototypes)

General characteristics
Crew: one
Length: 11.68 m (38 ft 4 in)
Wingspan: 10.6 m (34 ft 9 in)
Height: 3.5 m (11 ft 6 in)
Wing area: 25.1 m2 (270 sq ft)
Empty weight: 3,736 kg (8,236 lb)
Gross weight: 6,875 kg (15,157 lb)
Powerplant: 1 × Rolls-Royce Nene II turbojet, 22.69 kN (5,100 lbf) thrust

Performance
Maximum speed: 1,080 km/h (671 mph; 583 kn)
Cruise speed: 954 km/h (593 mph; 515 kn)
Range: 3,090 km (1,920 mi; 1,668 nmi)
Endurance: 2 hours, 50 minutes
Service ceiling: 15,000 m (49,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 25.5 m/s (5,020 ft/min)

Armament

Guns: 4 × 20 mm (0.79 in) Hispano-Suiza HS.404 license-built Bofors Oerlikon
cannon




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