And yes, that's a turbo-prop engine. You probably wouldn't see a modernized piston engine on an aircraft like this - turbo-props are much more reliable, easier to maintain, and provide greater power for the weight.
Posted on 05/08/2012 8:41:23 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Super Tucano Supporters In Shock: AF To Pick Tucano Or AT-6 Without Flying Either
The Air Force will choose a winner in its troubled Light Air Support competition without actually flying the two contending planes, the Embraer Super Tucano and the Hawker-Beechcraft AT-6, and it will even disregard what it has data from the limited "flight demonstration" it conducted last year.
That's a disturbing departure from best practice in a program that has already been an agony for the Air Force, with the delivery of ground-attack planes to the fledgling Afghan air force now delayed by 15 months, enough to miss not one but two "fighting seasons" in Afghanistan. A chagrined Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz has publicly pledged "we'll work our asses off" to get it right. But according to AOL Defense interviews with both corporate camps, the revised Request For Proposal released at 5:16 on Friday -- the traditional time to bury awkward news -- skips the important step of having the Air Force actually see how both planes fly before it makes its decision, tentatively due in January.
Evaluating the planes purely on paper rather than hands-on is problematic with each competing aircraft, for different reasons. The Super Tucano is simply unfamiliar to the Air Force, although it has an extensive track record in Latin American militaries, and a series of Navy Special Operations experiments variously called "Imminent Fury" and "Combat Dragon" gave good reports. The Hawker Beechcraft AT-6 (pictured) is derived from the familiar T-6 used to train both Air Force and Navy pilots, but the basic trainer is significantly different from the combat version, of which only two working models exist.
While they're still wading
(Excerpt) Read more at defense.aol.com ...
All that beauty needs is its quad 20’s back in the wings and you’ve got a real beast.
While I love the Spad, for close-in fighting I keep thinking two engines are better than one (pesky ground fire and all).
Personally I lean towards recreating the B-26 Invader.
And yes, that's a turbo-prop engine. You probably wouldn't see a modernized piston engine on an aircraft like this - turbo-props are much more reliable, easier to maintain, and provide greater power for the weight.
Thanx for the pic. You know I think I remember seeing this plane in either Janes or an issue of Av Week & Space Tech, back in the day.
Bump
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