ALR piranha
| ALR piranha | |
|---|---|
 Model of the twin-engine piranha |
|
| Type: | Light ground attack and fighter aircraft |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: |
ALR, ETH Zurich |
The ALR Piranha was the late 1970s, the feasibility study of a light multi-role combat aircraft with duck wings of the Swiss Working Group for Aerospace (ALR). The project was led by Georges Bridel, an engineer from ETH Zurich.
history
After the Swiss government canceled the development of the N-20 and the order for 100 pieces of the FFA P-16 , the Swiss aviation industry and the ETH Zurich made one last attempt for their own Swiss fighter planes. It was to be a small fighter plane - in the same class as the F-5E , which the Swiss Air Force later ordered.
The project study was created against the background that equipping air forces with modern aircraft became more and more problematic for small states in the 1960s and 1970s. The increase in the cost of flight material and its armament caused the size of the fleet to shrink and its efficiency in combat operations became questionable. In contrast to a small number of high-performance aircraft, a larger fleet of light aircraft was seen to be able to fight the defensive battle with the army for a longer period of time. However, a largely homogeneous material inventory should also be achieved in that a sample can be built in as many variants as possible. This meant that the aircraft will be used for air and ground combat, reconnaissance, electronic warfare and operational training with the same basic equipment. A small fighter aircraft was to be developed, with dimensions significantly reduced compared to the F-5E (20% smaller surface area).
The ALR would have been equipped with avionics, radar, weapons and engines from abroad. Due to a rigid 30 mm Gatling cannon on the underside of the fuselage, the nose wheel would have been slightly offset. The main landing gear would be designed in the style of an F-16 . An IR search sensor would have been installed in front of the cockpit. The single-engine version had air brakes on the sides of the rear fuselage, and the twin-engine version had two air brake flaps on the upper fuselage next to the vertical stabilizer .
A striking design feature were the high delta wings with internal fuel tanks and guided weapon carriers on the wing tip for guided weapons in the weight class of the AIM-9, as well as two wing pylons, in which the inner one is able to accommodate a double weapon carrier. These can be heavy air-to-air or air-to-ground guided missiles , additional tanks or air sample collection containers or, for the 2-seater version, the Vista5 Stör-System from Ericsson . The fuselage pylon between the main landing gear could have housed external fuel tanks or towed target containers for air-to-air and surface-to-air training.
The ALR should be offered in a single-jet version, powered by an RB199 , EJ200 or M88, or a twin-jet version (with two Larzacs ). Only the rear part of the twin-engine version would have been different to the single-engine machine in terms of size, the arrangement of the brake screen container and the air brakes.
Construction drawings were made, wind tunnel tests in Emmen and flight tests with remote-controlled model airplanes were carried out. A real-size cockpit mock-up was also created and a new concept for aircraft bunkers with a rotating storage area in the floor for easy handling of the aircraft in the aircraft bunker was designed. The Swiss government was not interested in the project, however, and no prototype and none of these aircraft bunkers were ultimately built.
variants
- Piranha 1
- Subsonic variant
- Piranha 2C
- Transonic ground combat version, an Adour Mk 811 (RT172-58) engine with 24.6 kN or 37.4 kN thrust (without or with afterburner), without radar, small wing (13.5 m²)
- Piranha 2D (1)
- Version for attack and air superiority hunting, an Adour (RT172-63), 29.2 kn or 44.9 kn thrust, full avionics, small wing (13.5 m²)
- Piranha 2D (2)
- like (1), but large wing (16 m²)
- Piranha 4
- two Larzac M-74/05 turbofan engines (15% more thrust at supersonic speed than RT172-63), shorter and wider fuselage
- Piranha 5
- two Garrett / Volvo TFE 1042-7 turbofan engines (18.4 kN or 30.2 kn with post-combustion)
- Piranha 6
- a 104 RB.199 Mk
Technical specifications
- Armament: 1 × cannon (30 mm KCA, Mauser 27 mm, General Electric GE-430 30 mm) Piranha 6 / Piranha 4 / Piranha 2D (2) / Piranha 2D (1)
- Length: 11.57 m / 10.50 m / 10.7 m / 10.7 m
- Wingspan: 7.62 m / 6.49 m / 6.49 m / 6 m
- Height: 4.25 m / 4.12 m
- Sash area: 22 m² / 16 m² / 16 m² / 13.5 m²
- Empty weight: 4,340 kg / 3800 kg
- Max. Fuel: 2,160 kg +
- normal TOW: 7,040 kg / 5900 kg
- Max. TOW: 10,000 kg
- Top speed: Mach 1.8 / Mach 1.6
- Max. Climb rate: 18,000 m / min
- Summit height: 16,800 m
- Take-off distance: 300 m / 450 m
- Combat radius, lo-lo-lo, 2,000 kg weapon load, 20 min cruise flight, 5 min combat deployment: 400km 300km
- On-board electronics
- Initially Ferranti FIN 1020nav / attack, type 105D laser rangefinder, Smiths HUD, Thomson-CSF agave radar.
- Later Ferranti FINAS 2000 INS, Ferranti 4510 HUD, Type 105D laser rangefinder, Emerson APG-69, General Electric APG-67 or Blue Vixen Radar.
literature
- Janes all the world's aircraft supplement (18) , in Flugrevue, June 1980, p. 55 f.
- Jane's all the world's aircraft, McGraw-Hill Verlag, 1985, p. 205
- Piranha light combat aircraft . In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung: Wochenschrift für Architektur, Ingenieurwesen, Maschinentechnik, Volume 96, 1978, p. 636
- P-16 and other jets suisses . Le Temps, December 1st, 2011
Web links
- ALR Piranha Model
- ALR Piranha 1 engine
- ALR Piranha plan 2engine
- ALR Piranha plan 1engine
- ALR Piranha 1engine
- ALR Piranha 2engine
- Project website of the ALR company
