Juan Perón's Swift Legacy

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FMA I.Ae.26 Vencejo - Grupo 1 de Caza del Comando Aereo de Defensa, Fuerza Aerea Argentina, 1949

An early step towards establishing the Fuerza Aérea Argentina as a separate branch of the Argentinian Armed Forces was taken during February 1944 when the newly created position of Commander-in-Chief of Aviation was made by the Department of War. This led directly to the creation of the Fuerza Aérea Argentina by decree on January 4th, 1945 with Brigadier Edmundo Sustaita becoming the first Commander of the Air Force shortly afterwards. Sustaita wasted no time in beginning a programme of modernization and in June 1946 he was aided by the incoming President Juan Perón who declared his strong desire for economic independence for Argentina with an ambitious five-year plan to increase wages, achieve full employment, stimulate industrial growth whilst also improving transportation, communication, energy and social infrastructure. Specifically to boost the Argentinian aviation industry President Juan Perón brought three teams of engineers to FMA (Fábrica Militar de Aviones) to drive forward  the technological development of Argentinian aviation. One team was led by Émile Dewoitine, one by Kurt Tank and one by the Argentinian-born Daniel Olguin who had worked under the leadership of Edgar Schmued at North American Aviation since 1938.

Whilst Dewoitine and Tank were tasked with designing interim and advanced jet fighters (the Pulqui I and the Pulqui II respectively) Olguin's task was to urgently design and manufacture a propeller-driven fighter aircraft under the designation I.Ae.26. It was completely logical for Olguin to start with a design that resembled the North American P-51D but his I.Ae.26 design was subtly different to the American aircraft being longer and having a different airfoil profile (NACA 66) to its laminar flow wings. Powered by a Rolls-Royce Griffon Mk 61 (rated at 2,035 hp) a key feature of the I.Ae.26 design was ease of manufacture and maintenance with a slightly box-like fuselage with detachable panels for ease of access replacing the conic sections of the P-51D. To aid production the airframe was divided into five main sections consisting of the forward fuselage, centre fuselage, tail, left wing and right wing all of which were fitted with wiring and piping before being assembled.

Development progressed swiftly with the prototype I.Ae.26 flying for the first time on April 30th, 1947 flown by senior FMA test pilot Miguel Kempes who achieved a calibrated level flight speed of 444 mph at 30,000 ft (8,046 m). Such performance was considered outstanding and the cockpit layout was praised by all FMA test pilots. Kempes gave a spectacular display of the prototype I.Ae.26 at the 'Veinticinco de Mayo' airshow held in Buenos Aires on May 25th, 1947 and, afterwards, President Juan Perón announced a production order for 100 aircraft and also bestowing the name of 'Vencejo' (Swift) on the I.Ae.26. Entering service with Grupo 1 de Caza in August 1948 the Vencejo was popular with Fuerza Aerea Argentina pilots and whilst still in service in 1955 it did not participate in the  Revolución Libertadora and was eventually phased out of service towards the end of 1960 when it was replaced by the F-86F Sabre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Skin Credit: Charles