The FFA P-16 was a
Swiss prototype
ground attack
In military tactics, close air support (CAS) is defined as air action such as air strikes by fixed or rotary-winged aircraft against hostile targets near friendly forces and require detailed integration of each air mission with fire and movemen ...
jet fighter designed and produced by aircraft manufacturer
Flug- und Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein __NOTOC__
Flug- und Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein AG (FFA) ( en, Flight and Driving Vehicle Plant Altenrhein) was a Swiss aircraft and railroad car manufacturing company based at Altenrhein. It was originally part of Dornier Flugzeugwerke, but was split ...
(FFA). It was Switzerland's second attempt to develop a domestically designed and manufactured jet fighter, following the
EFW N-20.
Work on what would become the P-16 commenced during the late 1940s. From the onset, the company intended for the indigenously developed fighter to replace several piston-engined aircraft that were then in service with the
Swiss Air Force. During 1952, a pair of prototypes were ordered from FFA. On 25 April 1955, the first prototype performed its
maiden flight. On 15 August 1956, the second prototype exceeded the
sound barrier for the first time. The flight test programme demonstrated the P-16 to be capable of achieving favourable performance; accordingly, a production contract for 100 aircraft was issued by the Swiss Government.
In the aftermath of a pre-production aircraft's crash, the Swiss production order was terminated and soon thereafter replaced by orders for the British-built
Hawker Hunter. This cancellation had come before any production P-16s had been completed. While the company continued the program independently for a time, completing a further two aircraft, no buyers could be found for the type. The P-16s were examined by
Bill Lear, who later developed the highly successful
Learjet family of
business jets. However, the P-16 was never introduced into service by any operator, and only a single example of the type remains presently.
Development
Background
Following the
end of the European portion of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, Switzerland was one of several nations who used the new-found peacetime to modernise and expand its industrial and military capabilities.
At the time of the war's conclusion, the
Swiss Air Force was equipped with numerous
piston-engined aircraft, while several high-ranking officials sought to adopt new designs that harnessed newly developed
jet propulsion instead. During the same time period, Swiss defense companies also sought to develop increasingly capable equipment, including 's
EFW N-20, which would be Switzerland's first domestically designed and manufactured jet fighter.
According to author Fiona Lombardi, development of the N-20 was greatly hindered by a lack of technical knowledge and over-ambitious performance demands, which contributed to a protracted development programme. This effort would never progress beyond the prototype stage before being eclipsed by more capable aircraft and ultimately terminated.
[Lombardi 2007, p. 44.]
During 1947, independent of the N-20 effort, Swiss firm
Flug- und Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein __NOTOC__
Flug- und Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein AG (FFA) ( en, Flight and Driving Vehicle Plant Altenrhein) was a Swiss aircraft and railroad car manufacturing company based at Altenrhein. It was originally part of Dornier Flugzeugwerke, but was split ...
(FFA) decided to embark on their own independent fighter jet development programme.
Designated ''P-16'', it was reportedly conceived as being a
supersonic-capable
fighter-bomber that would be capable of deployment from the more remote and compact alpine bases. According to periodical
Popular Mechanics, this ability to operate from short runways was particularly ambitious, as such a requirement had proved to be a substantial and persistence hindrance in efforts to procure suitable jet fighters for the Swiss Air Force.
["Swiss P-16 Jet For Short Runways."](_blank)
''Popular Mechanics'', April 1956, p. 136. By the end of 1950, the Swiss Air Force had procured numerous
subsonic jet aircraft from foreign sources, including the British
de Havilland Vampire and
de Havilland Venom fighters; however, the service still had a vacant role for a supersonic-capable fighter.
[Lombardi 2007, pp. 45, 50.]
Flight testing and evaluation
During 1952, a pair of prototypes were ordered from FFA. On 25 April 1955, the first of these aircraft (''J-3001'') performed its
maiden flight. This prototype was subsequently destroyed in a crash on 31 August 1955, having conducted 22 flights with a cumulative flight time of 12 hours 38 minutes. On 15 August 1956, the second prototype exceeded the
sound barrier for the first time. This prototype completed another 310 flights by March 1958, being withdrawn shortly thereafter. A development contract for a batch of four pre-production aircraft was awarded. These aircraft, which were designated ''Mk II'', differed from the earlier prototypes in a variety of ways; perhaps most significantly, these aircraft were furnished with the more powerful
Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire
The Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire is a British turbojet engine that was produced by Armstrong Siddeley in the 1950s. It was the ultimate development of work that had started as the Metrovick F.2 in 1940, evolving into an advanced axial flow de ...
7 engine in place of the prototype's Sapphire 6.
Reportedly, test flights of the pre-production aircraft proved itself to have promise; during 1958, a production contract was awarded for 100 aircraft. However, another accident occurred when the first pre-production machine (''J-3003'') was destroyed in a crash on 25 March 1958 after 102 flights. According to Lombardi, the second crash was a major blow to the project; it has been claimed that the Swiss Government decided to cancel the entire order due to the accidents involved.
By the end of the 1950s, Switzerland opted to procure British-built
Hawker Hunters to meet the Swiss Air Force's needs instead of the P-16.
[Lombardi 2007, p. 50.]
Post-termination development
Following the cancellation, FFA decided to continue the P-16 program at its own expense for a while. The company completing two further aircraft, which conformed to the more capable ''MK III'' standard; these (''X-HB-VAC/J-3004'' and ''X-HB-VAD/J-3005'') conducted their first flights in July 1959 and March 1960 respectively, while their last flights were performed during April 1960 and June 1960. One of the last flights was the one and only presentation abroad at
Friedrichshafen on the 26th of June 1960. Despite attempts by the company to attract customers, no buyers ultimately emerged for the type.
Certain design aspects of the P-16 were used by business man and
inventor Bill Lear when developing the first of the highly successful
Learjet family of business jets, the
Learjet 23.
[Georges Bridel, Verkehrshaus der Schweiz, Luzern 1975, .] Several of the engineers behind the P-16 later worked for Lear, and the design of both the P-16 and Learjet 23 bore several similarities; some historians have alleged the latter was a direct derivative of the former.
According to Bill Lear's son, William P. Lear, the designs of the P-16 and the Learjet possessed substantial differences, particularly in terms of their wing and tail configurations, dismissing claims of there being a close similarities between the two as "stories" and "fantasy". William had become involved in the P-16 program at a later stage, which included flying the type multiple times, after FFA had reached out to him for his assessment of the aircraft during 1960.
[Dunn, Terry]
"The Strange and Unlikely Genesis of the LearJet."
''tested.com'', 8 January 2015.
Design
The FFA P-16 was a single-seat, single-engine aircraft, designed to be especially well suited to the
close air support (CAS) role, but to also perform as a capable interceptor aircraft as well.
In terms of its basic configuration, it was furnished with a low-mounted wing, air intakes on the fuselage sides, and the
horizontal stabilizer mounted halfway up the
fin. The exterior skin was composed of a relatively light-gauge
alloy; in key areas, a specialised sandwich-type design was used to preserve stiffness, such as the wings. To facilitate effective operations when deploying upon unprepared fields, a relatively heavy
undercarriage, complete with dual-wheels and
tyres
A tire (American English) or tyre (British English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide traction on the surface over which t ...
, was adopted; furthermore, it was designed with surplus strength to accommodate the potential needs of future variants of the P-16.
The P-16 could provide a high level of short-field performance, a factor which had been emphasized during its design.
[''Flight'' 1995, p. 152.] To accomplish this, the wing was equipped with various high-lift devices; these included somewhat uncommon full-span
Krueger flaps
Krueger flaps, or Krüger flaps, are lift enhancement devices that may be fitted to the leading edge of an aircraft wing. Unlike slats or droop flaps, the main wing upper surface and its nose is not changed. Instead, a portion of the lower wing i ...
on the
leading edge, large
Fowler-type flaps on the inboard-
trailing edge, and Flaperons;
ailerons which also operated as flaps. In conjunction, these devices reportedly allowed the aircraft to take off and land within 1,000 ft (330 m) at high altitude, allowing the P-16 to operate from the Alpine valleys characteristic of Switzerland.
The wing itself was
straight and relatively thin, achieved a low-
aspect ratio; it featured multi-
spar construction.
It is provisioned with
tip-tanks which, in addition to storing fuel, provide a structural function, acting as end plates. A fuselage break aft of the wings enabled the rapid changing of the engine.
The majority of powered systems, such as the flight controls, primarily harnessed
Hydraulic power in the form of a
Dowty-built high-pressure system; this was driven by the aircraft's turbojet engine and supplemented by
accumulators for emergency operation of the undercarriage,
air brakes and flaps.
A second backup system is provided via a
pneumatic system, powering the wheel
brakes as well as undercarriage deployment and jettisoning the canopy.
Bleed air drawn from the engine provided
cockpit pressurization and
air conditioning for pilot comfort.
The electrical system incorporated a 24 V
DC generator, electricity was used for various systems, including the engine starter, fuel pumps, windscreen heating,
ultra high frequency
Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter ...
(UHF)
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a tr ...
and
radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, Marine radar, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor v ...
set. Armaments were stored underneath the wings and within a weapons bay house in the fuselage centre-section; the latter could accommodate
rocket
A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entir ...
s, fragmentation or
napalm bombs, or a large fuel tank for additional endurance; furthermore, a pair of 30 mm
cannon
A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...
were permanently mounted upon the nose.
Variants
* Mk I: two prototypes powered with an
Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire
The Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire is a British turbojet engine that was produced by Armstrong Siddeley in the 1950s. It was the ultimate development of work that had started as the Metrovick F.2 in 1940, evolving into an advanced axial flow de ...
ASSa 6 engine of 7,900 lb (3983 kg) thrust.
* Mk II: pre-production machine with a Sapphire ASSa 7 engine of 11,000 lb (4,990 kg) thrust. Only one aircraft was completed out of an order for four before the project was cancelled.
Proposed variants to be built by AFU
Aktiengesellschaft für Flugzeugunternehmungen proposed several variants:
* P-16-Trainer: Training version with two seats in tandem for the Swiss Air Force. Without the two 30mm guns of the single seater version.
* AR-7:
Rolls-Royce RB.168 engine
Surviving aircraft
As of 2007, only a single example of the P-16, which was assembled from elements of two separate prototypes, remains in existence. It is on display at the Swiss Air Force Museum at the
Dübendorf Air Base.
FFA P-16 on Pictures inside of the Museum
/ref>
Specifications (Mark III)
References
Citations
Bibliography
* Buttler, Tony. ''X-Planes of Europe II: Military Prototype Aircraft from the Golden Age 1946–1974''. Manchester, UK: Hikoki Publications, 2015.
"For Alpine Attack."
''Flight'', 1955. p. 152
* Frickler, John. "Switzerland's P-16: Father of the Learjet." '' Air International'', March 1991, Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 139–146
* Green, William and Gerald Pollinger.''Die Flugzeuge der Welt'' (in German). Zürich, Switzerland: Werner Classen Verlag, 1960
* Green, W. and Swanborough, G.; ''The complete book of fighters'', Salamander (1994),
* Johnson, Robert Craig
"Swiss Guards: the Federal Aircraft Factory N-20 and the FFA P-16."
''Chandelle 2'' (2), 1997.
* Lombardi, Fiona. ''The Swiss Air Power: Wherefrom? Whereto?'' Hochschulverlag AG, 2007.
* Schürmann, Roman. ''Helvetische Jäger. Dramen und Skandale am Militärhimmel''(in German). Zürich: Rotpunktverlag, 2009. .
* Strehler, Hanspeter. ''Das schweizer Düsenflugzeug P-16'' (in German). Erschienen, Switzerland: 2004.
* Taylor, Michael J.H. ''Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation''. London: Studio Editions, 1989, pp. 39, 383.
External links
Origins of the Learjet
{{Flug- und Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein aircraft
P-16
Abandoned military aircraft projects of Switzerland
1950s Swiss fighter aircraft
Single-engined jet aircraft
Low-wing aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1955
Cruciform tail aircraft