Posted on 09/25/2014 12:05:41 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
The first A29 Super Tucano manufactured in the United States made its debut today in a ceremony at the Embraer facility at Jacksonville International Airport.
The light air support defense plane, contracted by the U.S. Air Force from Sierra Nevada Corp. and built by Brazilian-based Embraer, has passed its military certifications and was officially approved for use by the Air Force. The Afghan National Army for light air support will eventually use the plane.
"The capability speaks for itself," said Taco Gilbert, vice president of the Sierra Nevada Corp. "It's gotten its air worthiness approval, which is a stamp of approval from the U.S. Air Force."
As the first Super Tucano built in the United States, this plane is one of 20 ordered in the original Air Force contract for $427 million. Gilbert said he felt confident there could be additional orders, and said the group was in contact with other potential customers.
There are eight planes in various stages of production, said Dan Culleton, general manager for Embraer. Each plane spends about 15 days in each segment of production, which are broken down into further stages. Planes go through pre-equipping and pre-assembly, final assembly and flight operations assessments before being presented to the customer.
About 137 employees here were hired from the area for these construction projects, Culleton said. Employees range from technicians to support labor to production engineers to logistics specialists.
"Jacksonville is blessed with aviation skills," he said.
Gary Spulak, president of Embraer Aircraft Holding Inc., said the core of the project's success has been Jacksonville's workforce, which was a main driver for selecting the city as the site for its construction.
"It's a win-win," he said. "A win for the community, a win for us and a win for the air fighter."
Mayor Alvin Brown, who was in attendance, praised the success of the facility and Embraer's public-private partnership with the city.
"It's about creating economic security," he said, "and that's happening right here in Jacksonville… . This achievement is a testament to Jacksonville's stature as the most military-friendly city in America."
O.K. Was it REALLY built here or in Brazil?
Personally, I preferred the Beechcraft proposal.
Let me see if I’ve got this straight.
The U.S. taxpayers have borrowed about $500 million from the Chinese,
and given it to a Brazilian corporation to build 20 of these planes,
so that we can turn around and give them to the Afghan Air Force.
Is that about it?
The P-51 Mustang cost $50,000 in 1945 dollars, which if you believe Government statistics, is about $650,000 today. According to the specs of each, the top speed of a P-51 is about 465 mph, while this "Super Tacano" is 368 mph.
Why not just build more P-51's and upgrade the avionics????
Does the price include maintenance and support because that works out to over $21 MM per plane? No way a turbo prop should be that expensive. I bet you can go around Russia and find 20 IL-2 Sturmoviks in decent shape, the Soviets made over 40 K of those during WW II, and rehabilitate them for service. I bet the total cost would be $21 MM. I know for sure a refurbished IL-2 would be more much effective plane than this glorified Cessena.
I am sure it is a fine plane. But how in the Hell do you spend $25,000,000 to build one?
How much does Brazil pay for them?
Pretty outrageous isn’t it? I realized I had slipped a decimal place and drew a deep breath at the 21,350,000 price tag for a prop driven airplane with no development cost?
As someone said above, the important thing is that the right people made money, a lot of money.
Sort of a blend of the P51 and the A1 Skyraider. Shows you that those designs were good ideas so long ago.
Seems like existing platforms could have been modified for a whole lot less.
Love the Strumovik.
But you would lose your bet.
According to the Wikipedia article on the aircraft (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyushin_Il-2), only 12 examples survive and only 1 is in flyable condition. (Scroll to the bottom of the article for a list of the surviving aircraft.
Given that Beechcraft was unable to submit a cheaper bid, I suspect these planes are not your grandpappy's P-51's.
Amazing from 40,000 to a a dozen still around. I wonder what would it cost just to take the blue print and build some new ones with updated avionics and engine. It is hard to believe it would be close to $21 MM a copy.
Bring back the Douglas A-1 Skyraider!
The Merlin (and all piston engines) are more maintenance intensive
The P&W Turboshaft engine has a 800hour Insepction and 5000 hour TBO (time between overhaul)
Where as the V1650 (Packard built Merlin) has a TBO of 320 hours
There was an attempt to build a Turbo Prob Mustang at one time
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_PA-48_Enforcer
I suspect most pilots would far prefer the turbine engine rather than the old piston V-12. There really is no comparison in reliability.
The Super Tucano IS an existing design.
I have no idea what goes into that price per aircraft. Neither do you. Usually, the price reported is some sort of total program cost, divided by the number of aircraft produced. This tends to inflate the apparent cost of small production runs, and deflate the apparent cost of large production runs. Usually, Big Media will do anything it can to inflate the apparent cost of any military equipment purchase.
Wait....427 million for 20 prop driven planes?
I will admit I am not knowledgeable in the field...but that seems like a lot per plane...
Light air support for Afghanistan ?
What to protect the poppy fields?
Maximum speed:
Mustang: 437 mph
Skyraider: 322 mph
Super Tucano: 367 mph
Payload:
Mustang: 2 hard points, 2000lb max
Skyraider: 15 hard points, 8000lb max
Super Tucano: 5 hard points, 3300lob max
Internal guns:
Mustang: 6x M2 .50 cal
Skyraider: 4x 20mm
Super Tucano: 2x .50 cal
I haven't found directly comparable range figures for these aircraft. I think the Skyraider would turn out to have the longest legs as an attack aircraft. The Mustang used drop tanks to extend range, as an air superiority fighter.
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