The Procaer F.15 ''Picchio'' (Italian: "Woodpecker") is an Italian-designed light utility aircraft built by Procaer (PROgetti Costruzioni AERonautiche).

Design

The Picchio was developed in Italy in the late 1950s as a further development of Stelio Frati's Falco and Nibbio designs. Like its predecessors, the Picchio was a conventional low-wing

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...

monoplane of exceptionally clean lines, with retractable tricycle undercarriage. Early versions of the Picchio shared the same wooden construction as the earlier designs, but had a thin aluminium skin over the top of their plywood skins. The F.15E and F.15F, however, were all-metal.

Production

Production of the early, wooden Picchios was carried out by Procaer in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, but in the mid 1960s, Frati established

General Avia General Avia is the Italian aircraft manufacturing company which produced Stelio Frati's prototype designs as well as commercial production of some designs. Today the official name is "GeneralAvia Aerospace Technology Company" Aircraft * Proc ...

as his own factory to build his designs, commencing with the F.15E. Only a few examples were built, however, and the design lay dormant until revived by an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n company, HOAC in the mid 1990s. HOAC arranged to have the two-seat F.15F model built at the JSC Sokol plant in Niznij Novgorod, but ran out of money, leaving Sokol with unsold airframes in various states of completion.

Operational history

The Picchio was primarily intended for operation by private pilot owners and the design was exported to several European countries as well as being purchased by Italian individuals. Several are still airworthy (2012).

Variants

* F.15 - prototype and initial production with

Lycoming O-320 The Lycoming O-320 is a large family of naturally aspirated, air-cooled, four-cylinder, direct-drive engines produced by Lycoming Engines. They are commonly used on light aircraft such as the Cessna 172 and Piper Cherokee. Different variants ...

engine and three seats. 5 built. * F.15A - revised production version with

Lycoming O-360 The Lycoming O-360 is a family of four-cylinder, direct-drive, horizontally opposed, air-cooled, piston aircraft engines. Engines in the O-360 series produce between 145 and 225 horsepower (109 to 168 kW), with the basic O-360 produc ...

engine and four seats. 10 built by Procaer. Procaer F

* F.15B - similar to F.15A but with larger-span wings and fuel tanks relocated from fuselage to wings (20 built by Procaer). * F.15C - version with Continental IO-470-E engine and tip tanks. One built. * F.15D - proposed version similar to F.15B with

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engine. Not built. * F.15E Picchio - Four-seat, all metal aircraft with fuel in wing and wing-tip tanks and powered by Continental IO-520K engine. First prototype flown 21 December 1968 and second aircraft flown 1976. * F.15F - All metal, four-seat derivative of F15.E with bubble canopy and powered by IO-360 engine. One built by

, flying 20 October 1977. ** F.15F Excalibur - F.15F built by JSC Sokol at

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət ), colloquially shortened to Nizhny, from the 13th to the 17th century Novgorod of the Lower Land, formerly known as Gork ...

, Russia for assembly by Eurospace in Italy. Pre-production aircraft assembled by HOAC in Austria and flown in October 1994. Orders for 33 aircraft at end of 1995, with about 100 in various stages of construction or assembly at that time.

Specifications (F.15B)

References