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FMA IAe 27 Pulqui (Arrow)

1947 COLD WAR X-PLANE

History

Like other countries after World War II (1939-1945), Argentina began to look to the near future and invest in turbojets. This brings together a team of experts mainly from Europe, led by Frenchman Emile Dewoitine, to design and develop what will be the first turbojet powered platform in Argentina (and South America) - the FMA IAe 27 "Pulqui".

Despite European involvement, the design was unsuccessful, and only one prototype was built and flown. Production is carried out through the label Fabrica Militar de Aviones (FMA).

The aircraft was designed as an interceptor-oriented armed aircraft in a single-seat, single-engine layout. The approach will include all modern qualities such as a fully retractable tricycle landing gear and an all-metal skinned construction.

In addition, there will be rough field operations capabilities as well as inherent short take-off (STO) capabilities. The engine of choice was a British 3,600-pound Rolls-Royce Derwent V turbojet with a round, streamlined fuselage including a nose-mounted air intake, forward cockpit (with framed canopy) And the traditional flat tail - a low-slung vertical tail mounted on a horizontal plane. However, the wings were not swept back, but were mounted as straight appendages low on the sides of the hull forward of the mid-hull.

Initially the tips of these wings were rounded, but the final form was square tips. The proposed weapon is a 4 x 20mm automatic cannon, and in the future the wings can be fitted with conventional throwing weapons or rocket launcher rails.

The Pulqui prototype first flew on 9 August 1947, but it soon became clear that the design was of course limited by poor performance - especially given its intended role as an interceptor, where speed was the main quality. Range was also limited because the fuel tanks were forced to be built into the wing panels - the interior volume of the fuselage was largely controlled by the engine mounts and associated ducts that ran around the cockpit to the nose inlet. Development eventually stalled and eventually stopped when work began on a more promising project - the FMA IAe 33 "Pulqui II", a design based largely on the WWII-era Focke-Wulf Ta 183 jet fighter German engineer Kurt Tank.

Tank worked in Argentina to help with their homegrown jet fighter program before arriving in India.

The FMA IAe 27 prototype was retired from active flight testing in 1951, rescued from a scrap heap, and reborn as a well-preserved exhibit at the National Aviation Museum in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The IAe 27 has an overall length of 31.8 feet, a wingspan of 37 feet, and a height of 11 feet. Its performance includes a top speed of 445 mph, a range of up to 560 miles and a service ceiling of nearly 50,855 feet.