Brazil and Rugged Air Ops

06/06/2011

06/06/2011 The Brazilians operate their aircraft under very demanding conditions.  The Super Tucano and CN-295 are both examples of rugged aircraft operating in these conditions.

As a senior Embraer executive stated to SLD:

The Super Tucano started off as the EMB 312 Trainer many years ago and migrated into the Super Tucano.  Currently, more than the six countries are flying the Super Tucano. Based on the needs of the Brazilian Air Force, they wanted a light attack COIN aircraft that was designed from the bottom up to be able to operate out of austere environments without a large logistical footprint because most of the areas that they would be operating would be in the Amazon region and there just weren’t a lot of airfields and the airfields that they had certainly weren’t developed.

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Photo Credit: Brazilian Air Force

Similar to the Super Tucano, the C-295 operates well in the rugged Brazilian domain.  In a briefing submitted to the Airbus Trade Media event in 2011, a senior Brazilian AF officer provided an overview of those circumstances and the response of the plane to those challenges.The brief highlighted the need to operate in bad weather conditions and to operate in frequent rain conditions. The plane had to operate regularly on less the optimal runways.  Indeed, the norm is to operate on semi-prepared runways.  The plane is able to takeoff and land in a short distance carrying full loads.

In short, the Brazilian environment is demanding and has provided a real world testing ground for Airbus Military and Embraer to evolve tough products for a tough world. It might be noted that the USCG has bought the younger brother to the C-295, the C-235, because of its belief in the ruggedness of the airplane.