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FFA P-16

1955 COLD WAR X-PLANE

History

Switzerland dabbled in jet fighter design during the Cold War (1947-1991), resulting in what became known as the FFA "P-16". The aircraft follows the earlier EFW N-20 Stinger program - the country's first attempt - which brought only a full prototype and an unpowered glider.

Like the N-20 before it, the P.16 is a homegrown attempt to provide a local solution to a local problem - delivering a front-line fighter to the Swiss Air Force to tackle an aging and outdated line of propeller-powered fighter jets.

Due to the Swiss nature of war if attacked, the focus of the P-16 is on short-field operations with inherently strong ground attack/close air support (CAS) capabilities. Overall, the resulting aircraft was fairly traditional for the post-World War II era: it had a pilot behind a short nose cone, had low-mounted straight-wing main aircraft, wingtip fuel tanks, and was powered by turbojets engine. The horizontal plane was kept in the middle of the single vertical stabilizer at the tail of the aircraft.

A split air intake configuration was used, with crescent-shaped openings on either side of the cockpit to allow intake of a single engine in the fuselage of the aircraft. The tricycle landing gear is reinforced for unprepared runways, is fully retractable, and consists of a twin-tire front strut and two tire main legs.

The proposed weapon is 2 x 30mm Hispano-Suiza HS>825 guns mounted in the nose, each gun can fire 120 projectiles. Each wing has two hardpoints to carry a total of 5,700 pounds of ordnance in conventional bomb form. In addition, a retractable Matra 1000 tray is mounted under the forward hull, which houses the 44x68mm SNEB rockets.

Wingtip fuel tanks provided greater combat range on thirsty turbojet units.

The production quality aircraft will be powered by the UK Armstrong Siddeley ASSa. 7 "Sapphire" turbojets with 11,000 lbs of thrust. Performance specs include a top speed of 695 mph, a maximum range of 900 miles, and a service cap of 46,000 feet. Climb to 12,800 feet per minute.

By definition, the P-16 is a "transonic" aircraftneither subsonic nor supersonic.

On April 25, 1955, the first flight of a prototype named "Mk I" (equipped with a 7,900 lb thrust ASSa.6 engine) was recorded. However, the item was later destroyed in a crash.

Two aircraft were completed to Mk I prototype standards, followed by four planned pre-production aircraft designated "Mk II". The first of these flew with the ASSa. The 7 engine was installed on April 15, 1957. Only one of the four-man batch was completed, but two were rebuilt as "Mk III" entries with full armament.

One flew for the first time on July 8, 1959, and the other on March 24, 1960, when the plan was almost complete.

Back in March 1958, the Swiss Parliament approved a purchase order for 100 Mk III standard aircraft. The crash of a pre-production plane gave hope to an expensive local project that was eventually terminated by the government, forcing the Swiss Air Force to buy British Hawker Hunter jets.

The FAA continued to do some additional work on their P-16 design to continue their hopes of bringing the product to fruition, but this only resulted in the aforementioned two completed Mk III aircraft.

This ended Switzerland's second attempt at the fighter.