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Neiva T-25 (Universal)

1966 COLD WAR

History

In the early 1960s, the Brazilian Air Force was looking to replace its aging US-built T-6 'Texan' and Dutch Fokker S-11/S-12 base trainers (a pair originating in the 1930s or 1940s). The Neiva N621 "Universal" is a single-engine, two- or three-seat all-metal monoplane with a choice of a modern local solution for basic training/ground attack missions.

In the end, a total of 189 were realized, filling the inventory of the Brazilian Air Force and the Bolivian, Chilean and Paraguayan Air Services.

The series started with the prototype YT-25A, which was mostly traditional in design. The wings of the monoplane were placed low on the midship front and on the sides of the fuselage.

The fuselage itself has been widened to accommodate two cockpit seats side by side, allowing for excellent teacher-student communication. The engine was mounted in the nose in the usual way, and the powerplant became a 300-horsepower Lycoming IO-540-K1D5 series 6-cylinder piston engine made in America.

This drives a simple two-bladed propeller on the nose.

The tail is as traditional, with a single vertical and slightly raised horizontal. For ground operations, there is a fully modern wheeled tricycle arrangement that retracts into the design, thus maintaining the aerodynamic efficiency of the aircraft.

The first flight of the prototype was recorded on April 29, 1966, and the Brazilian Air Force ordered 150 aircraft and officially adopted the T-25 "universal" design. Service returned in the late 1970s and another 28 were ordered.

The Universal has a barrel length of 28.2 feet, a wingspan of 36 feet, and a height of 9.9 feet. Curb weight is 2,535 pounds, and MTOW is 3,750 pounds. Performance specs include a top speed of 190 mph, a cruising speed of 177 mph, a range of up to 930 miles, and a service ceiling of 20,000 feet.

Climb rate of 1,315 feet per minute.

When armed, the T-25 can carry 2 x 7.62mm machine gun shells on two external cradles.

The T-25 lived a long and healthy life in the Brazilian Air Force. The service even thought enough of its homegrown product to run it as a counter-insurgency (COIN) platform, allowing it to play a low-level role.

In addition to its basic training role, this type of modification demonstrates the inherent versatility of the T-25.

It was the Chilean army that was interested in the T-25 and ordered ten prototypes, not the air force. These later fell into the hands of the Chilean Air Force before completing the voyage with Paraguay. With the arrival of the Embraer EMB-312 Toucan light combat platform in the early 1980s, the T-25's time in the air was numbered.

In 2005, the Brazilian Air Force, which has been working on Tucano since 1983, delivered six T-25s each to Bolivia and Paraguay.

The YT-25B ("Universal II") was suggested as a suitable successor to the original T-25A, but was not pursued. The prototype made its maiden flight on October 2, 1978.