The Socata TB 30 Epsilon is a light military trainer aircraft produced by

SOCATA SOCATA (later EADS Socata and DAHER-SOCATA) was a French producer of general aviation aircraft propelled by piston engines and turboprops, including business planes, small personal or training aircraft, as well as the production of aircraft stru ...

(then part of

Aérospatiale Aérospatiale (), sometimes styled Aerospatiale, was a French state-owned aerospace manufacturer that built both civilian and military aircraft, rockets and satellites. It was originally known as Société nationale industrielle aérospatiale ...

). It is a tandem two-seater with a metal airframe. The first prototype flew on 22 December 1979.

Design and development

In 1978, the

French Air Force The French Air and Space Force (AAE) (french: Armée de l'air et de l'espace, ) is the air and space force of the French Armed Forces. It was the first military aviation force in history, formed in 1909 as the , a service arm of the French Ar ...

(''Armée de l'Air'') published a requirement for a new basic trainer aircraft to partially replace the

Fouga Magister Fouga (also known as Air Fouga) was a French manufacturing company established by Gaston Fouga at Béziers during 1920. Originally specialising in the repair of railway rolling stock, the firm eventually became most noted for the aircraft it p ...

in the early parts of the syllabus for pilot training. The new aircraft was expected to have tandem seating, be powered by a 224 kW (300 hp) piston engine and have a three-hour endurance. Similar designs were proposed by the

subsidiary of

(based on their TB 10 Tobago light aircraft) and by GEPAL (the GEPAL Mk II). The SOCATA proposal, the TB 30B, was chosen in February 1979.Jackson 1987, p. 8. The first of two prototypes flew on 22 December 1979,Taylor 1988, p. 56. but testing showed that the Epsilon had poor handling and it was redesigned with a new swept back fin supplemented by a ventral strake and a larger

tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail ( empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyropl ...

, while the wing was fitted with elliptical tips increasing the wingspan from 7.40 m (24 ft 3 in) to 7.59 m (24 ft 11 in). The first prototype flew again with these changes on 31 October 1980, and it was soon found that the handling problems had been fixed.Jackson 1987, pp. 9–10. The Epsilon is a low winged

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 cant ...

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

of all metal construction. It is powered by a

Lycoming O-540 The Lycoming O-540 is a family of air-cooled six-cylinder, horizontally opposed fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter engines of displacement, manufactured by Lycoming Engines. The engine is a six-cylinder version of the four-cylinder Lycoming O- ...

flat-six A flat-six engine, also known as a horizontally opposed-six, is a six-cylinder piston engine with three cylinders on each side of a central crankshaft. The most common type of flat-six engine is the boxer-six engine, where each pair of opposed cy ...

piston engine A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common feat ...

driving a two-blade propeller, and is fitted with a retractable nosewheel undercarriage. The pilot and instructor are sat in tandem under a sliding

Plexiglas Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite ...

canopy, with cockpit layout designed to aid transition to the

Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet The Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet is a light attack jet and advanced jet trainer co-manufactured by Dassault Aviation of France and Dornier Flugzeugwerke of Germany. It was developed specifically to perform trainer and light attack missions, ...

to which French students graduate after completing the Epsilon part of their training syllabus.Jackson 1987, pp. 10–11. Socata F-WOMG Oméga

The first prototype was modified into a testbed for the Turbomeca TP 319 Arrius

turboprop A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. ...

engine, flying in this form on 9 November 1985. The testbed was then modified into a dedicated turboprop trainer, the TB 31 Oméga, powered by a 360 kW (483 shp) Arrius 1A2 and fitted with

ejection seat In aircraft, an ejection seat or ejector seat is a system designed to rescue the pilot or other crew of an aircraft (usually military) in an emergency. In most designs, the seat is propelled out of the aircraft by an explosive charge or rock ...

s, returning to flight on 30 April 1989.Lambert 1990, p. 88. While it was offered for the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Si ...

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

Joint Primary Aircraft Training System The Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS) was an aircraft procurement program of the United States in the 1990s by the United States Air Force and United States Navy, a merger of 1980s era training aircraft programs. The winner was dec ...

competition to replace the

Beechcraft T-34 Mentor The Beechcraft T-34 Mentor is an American propeller-driven, single-engined, military trainer aircraft derived from the Beechcraft Model 35 Bonanza. The earlier versions of the T-34, dating from around the late 1940s to the 1950s, were piston ...

and

Cessna T-37 Tweet The Cessna T-37 Tweet (designated Model 318 by Cessna) is a small, economical twin-engined jet trainer type which flew for decades as a primary trainer for the United States Air Force (USAF) and in the air forces of several other nations. The T ...

, it was rejected, with no sales resulting.Lambert 1993, pp. 92–93.

Operational history

The ''Armée de l'Air'' placed an initial order for 30 Epsilons in 1981, with further contracts following with a total of 150 ordered.Jackson 1987, p. 9. First deliveries started in 1983, with the first training courses based on the Epsilon starting in September 1984.Jackson 1987, pp. 11–15. Export orders were received from

Togo Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its c ...

for three armed Epsilons in 1984, delivered in 1986 (with a fourth supplied later to replace a crashed aircraft) and from

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

in 1987 for 18 aircraft, to be assembled in Portugal by

OGMA OGMA – Indústria Aeronáutica de Portugal S.A. is a Portuguese aerospace company focused on aircraft maintenance and manufacturing. History OGMA was founded as part of the reorganisation of the Portuguese Army's Aeronautic Service on June ...

Variants

* TB 30 Epsilon: Military trainer aircraft * TB 31 Oméga: Proposed turboprop powered version of the TB 30 Epsilon. Only one aircraft built

Operators

; *

Portuguese Air Force , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = 1 July , equipment = , equipment_label ...

- 16 in service (2012)Hoyle ''Flight International'' 2012, p. 58. ; * Senegalese Air Force - 2 in service (2012)Hoyle ''Flight International'' 2012, p. 59. ; *

Togolese Air Force Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its c ...

- 3 in service (2012)Hoyle ''Flight International'' 2012, p. 61.

Former operators

; *

- 34 in service (2012)Hoyle ''Flight International'' 2012, p. 50. withdrawn from service by 2019.

Specifications

References

Notes

Bibliography

* "Directory: World's Air Forces". ''Flight International,'' 11–17 November 2008, pp. 52–76. * Donald, David. ''The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft''. Etobicoke, Ontario: Prospero Books, 1997, pp. 19–20. . * Hoyle, Craig.
"Directory: World Air Forces".
''Flight International'', Vol. 178, No. 5257, 14–20 September 2010, pp. 26–53. * Hoyle, Craig. "World Air Forces Directory". ''

Flight International ''Flight International'' is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", it is the world's olde ...

'', Vol. 182, No. 5370, 11–17 December 2012. pp. 40–64. * Jackson, Paul. "Epsilon ... The Tractable Trainer from Tarbes". ''Air International,'' Volume 32, No. 1, January 1987, pp. 7–15. ISSN 0306-5634. * Lambert, Mark. ''Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1990–91''. Coulsdon, UK: Jane's Defence Data, 1990. . * Lambert, Mark. ''Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1993–94.'' Coulsdon, UK: Jane's Data Division, 1993. . * * * * Taylor, John W.R. ''Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1988-89.'' Coulsdon, UK: Jane's Defence Data, 1988. .

External links

{{SOCATA/Daher aircraft

Epsilon Epsilon (, ; uppercase , lowercase or lunate ; el, έψιλον) is the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet, corresponding phonetically to a mid front unrounded vowel or . In the system of Greek numerals it also has the value five. It was d ...

1970s French military trainer aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1979