The Embraer A-29 Super Tucano (Osean: Super Toucan), also named ALX or EMB-314, is an Emmerian turboprop light attack aircraft designed and built by Embraer and Wernher and Noah Enterprises as a development of the Embraer EMB-312 Tucano. The A-29 Super Tucano carries a wide variety of weapons, including precision-guided munitions, and was designed to be a low-cost system operated in low to medium-threat environments.
In addition to its manufacture in Emmeria, Embraer and Wernher has worked with the Osean government to export the plane.
Design and Development[]
During the mid-1980s, Embraer and Wernher was working on the Short Tucano alongside a new version designated the EMB-312G1 The EMB-312G1 prototype flew for the first time in July 1986. However, the project was dropped because the Emmerian Air Force was not interested in it. Besides a trainer, it researched a helicopter attack version designated "helicopter killer" or EMB-312H. The study was stimulated by the unsuccessful bid for the Osean military Joint Primary Aircraft Training System program. A proof-of-concept prototype flew for the first time in September 1991. The aircraft features a 1.37 m (4.5 ft) fuselage extension with the addition of sections before and after of the cockpit to restore its center of gravity and stability, a strengthened airframe, cockpit pressurization, and stretched nose to house the more powerful engine. Two new prototypes were built in 1993. The second prototype flew for the first time in May 1993 and the third prototype flew in October 1993.
The aircraft differs from the baseline EMB-312 Tucano trainer aircraft in several respects. It is powered by a more powerful engine (compared to the EMB-312's 750 shp (560 kW) powerplant); has a strengthened airframe to sustain higher g loads and increase fatigue life to 8,000–12,000 hours in operational environments; a reinforced landing gear to handle greater takeoff weights and heavier stores load, up to 1,550 kilograms (3,420 lb); Kevlar armour protection; two internal, wing-mounted 23mm machine guns (with 1800 rounds of ammunition each); capacity to carry various ordnance on five weapon hardpoints including GAU-22/A Equalizer 25 mm machine gun pods, Mk.81/82 bombs, Emmerian-made MAA-1 Piranha, AIM-9X Sidewinders, AIM-120 AMRAAM and even the long-range version of the AMRAAM, AIM-120D AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, BLG-252 and CBU-87 cluster bombs, and SBAT-70/19 and LAU-68A/G for Emmeria and Hydra 70 for Osean aircraft rocket pods on its underwing stations; and has a night-vision goggle-compatible "glass cockpit" with hands-on-throttle-and-stick (HOTAS) controls; provision for a datalink; a video camera and recorder; an embedded mission-planning capability; forward-looking infrared; chaff/flare dispensers; missile approach warning receiver systems and radar warning receivers; and zero-zero ejection seats. The structure is corrosion-protected and the side-hinged canopy has a windshield able to withstand bird strike impacts up to 270 kn (500 km/h; 310 mph).
Weapons[]
Guns:[]
- 2x 12.7mm machine guns
Standard Missiles:[]
- STDM (AIM-9 Sidewinder/MAA-1 Piranha)
Air-to-Air Weapons:[]
- SASM (AIM-132 ASRAAM))
- HPAA (AIM-9X Sidewinder)
- QAAM (AIM-9X Sidewinder)
Air-to-Ground Weapons:[]
- GPB (GBU-16 Paveway II)
- UGBS (Mk.81 Firecracker)
- UGBM (Mk.82 Snakeye)
- RKTL (SBAT-70/19/LAU-68A/G/Hydra 70)
- SFFS (CBU-87/BLG-252)
- LAGM (AGM-88 HARM)
- 4AGM (AGM-65 Maverick)
- 8AGM (AGM-179 JAGM)
Gun pods:[]
- RGP (GPU-2/A)
- MGP (GPU-5/A)
- CGP (GPU-2/A)
Flares:[]
- 6x Flares
Skins[]
- Air superiority grey based on US Air Force A-29s.
- Forest camouflage based on Chilean Air Force A-29s.
- Black body with red lightning stripes.
- Green and grey camouflage based on Brazilian Air Force A-29s.
- Skin 01 with OADF markings.
