I.Ae. 27 Pulqui I

Pulqui I seen from the front.

The I.Ae. 27 Pulqui (arrow in the Mapuche language) was a jet aircraft designed and built in Argentina around 1947. It was the first aircraft of this type to be manufactured in Latin America, and the ninth in the entire world. world.

History

The project was born in 1946 at the initiative of the government of Juan Domingo Perón, the responsibility of carrying it out falls on the Aerotechnical Institute of Córdoba. Juan Ignacio San Martín, the director of the Institute, entrusted the design to the Argentine engineers Cardeilhac E., N.L. Morchio and H.J. Ricciardi.

Shortly after the project began, the Ministry of Aeronautics, upon learning of the presence of the French aeronautical industrialist Emile Dewoitine in Argentina, hired him, joining the Institute's team in the Special Projects Division.

Dewoitine was a renowned aeronautical designer who had fled his country accused of collaborating with the Nazis. He had been successful designing and building aircraft in France, and had arrived after his fleeting stay in Spain, escaping from French justice, with the intention of building his own jet plane project, the D 700. Although he is cited as the only person responsible of the design of the Pulqui, and in fact he had a preponderant participation, the plane was the result of a team effort, ultimately being very different from Dewoitine's personal project.

In 1946, the first parts of the prototype began to be manufactured, and a 1:1 wooden model was built for testing in the Institute's wind tunnel. The aircraft was completed in 1947, just over a year after the project began. The first flight took place at 5:25 p.m. on August 9, 1947. The plane took off from one of the runways of the Parachute School of Córdoba, piloted by then 1st Lieutenant Edmundo “Pincho” Weiss.

The first flights showed that the aircraft suffered from a marked lack of power and poor overall performance.^{[citation needed]} Later the wingspan was even reduced by about 75 cm, in an attempt to increase the top speed, which was 720 km/h instead of the expected 850 km/h.

In September, Lieutenant Weiss flew the prototype to Morón, near the city of Buenos Aires. On the 22nd, it was exhibited in flight before President Juan Perón, and after being shown to the public in Buenos Aires, the plane returned to Córdoba on December 10.

The official presentation of the plane took place on October 8, 1948, together with the I.Ae. 30 Ñancú and that of the Vickers Viking presidential plane.

The program lasted until 1948, when it was surpassed by a more advanced project, that of the I.Ae. 33 Pulqui II. From the construction of the Pulqui II, the I.Ae. 27 Pulqui was renamed Pulqui I.

Since the 1955 coup d'état, the Argentine Aircraft Factory was intervened and a large part of the scientists and engineers were laid off or had to go into exile and the program was deactivated. Among them, Isidoro Manzano, José Clèrici, Santiago Fontuzzi, developers of the second part of the Pulqui prototype, and the Argentine engineers Cardeilhac E., N.L. Morchio and H.J. Ricciardi in charge of the entire project. The Pulqui I in March 1956 was definitively withdrawn from service. Currently the plane rests in the National Museum of Aeronautics, in Morón.

Pulqui I en el MNA, Morón, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Technical characteristics

The design was simple, made entirely of metal and was powered by a Rolls Royce Derwent 5 turbine, the same one that powered the famous Gloster Meteor.

The wings were low cantilever-type, virtually swept-free, and trapezoidal in shape with elliptical tips (later cut straight to improve performance). The airfoil (IAe Code 242-1) was fully developed by the institute's engineers. The wings contained the only fuel tanks, with a capacity of 1,200 liters.

The landing gear was of the retractable tricycle type, hydraulically powered, and in an emergency it could be fully ejected. The brakes worked by compressed air.

Although the plane is said to have been designed to carry four 20mm cannons or other weapons, this was never actually contemplated in the plans.

The original paint was completely red with two cockades on the sides of the fuselage, without any type of identification or registration. Later, cockades were added on the wings and a small Argentine flag on each side of the drift. From 1947 it had different paint schemes with minor variations in color and identifications. The scheme that the plane has today is practically the same as the original.

Specifications

General Features

• Triple: 1
• Length: 9.7 m (31.8 ft)
• Scope: 11,3 m (36.9 ft)
• Height: 3.4 m (11.1 ft)
• Elong surface: 19.8 m2 (213 ft2)
• Empty weight: 2358 kg (5197 lb)
• Maximum weight at takeoff: 3600 kg (7934.4 lb)
• Motriz plant: 1× Rolls Royce Derwent 5.

Performance

• Maximum operating speed (Vno): 720 km/h (447 MPH; 389 kt)
• Cruise speed (Vc): 600 km/h (373 MPH; 324 kt)
• Scope: 900 km (486 nmi; 559 mi)
• Scope in combat: 1h 30 min
• Flight board: 15 500 m (50 853 ft)