Fake MiG-19
The IAE 33
Pulqui II was a transonic version of the Focke-Wulf Ta 183, developed by Kurt Tank in Argentina between 1947 and 1955.
Two test gliders and five prototypes were built of this aircraft. The scheduled production of 100 operational units was cancelled for political reasons in 1957.
The first glider was built with the collaboration of Reimar Horten in early 1948, to study the aerodynamic behavior of the design at low speeds. It flew for the first time on 20 October, towed by a Glenn Martin W-139 bomber, proving that the 55-degree swept tailfin did not offer sufficient lateral stability. The second glider was built with a 35-degree swept tailfin, which surface had been increased by 30 per cent.
The construction of two prototypes started in 1949. The IAE 33-01 was used for structural testing and the IAE 33-02 was fitted with a Rolls Royce
Nene II centrifugal turbojet with 2,270 kg static thrust. The first flight was made on 16 June 1950 showing lateral instability at speeds above 700 km/h and loss of lift at low speeds. It was modified with the installation of a wider rudder and wing leading extensions, a pressurizing system and a cockpit hood reinforced with metallic strips. A deflector was added over the nozzle to protect the rudder from the heat of the exhaust gases.
On 23 October, during the second test flight, the IAE 33-02 climbed to 8,000 m in 6 minutes reaching a speed of 1,040 km/h. During the third flight, it reached an absolute ceiling of 13,000 m, landing at 170 km/h without loss of lift. It was destroyed due to wing structural fail on 31 May 1951.
The IAE 33-03 was the preproduction version. It had an increased fuel capacity and better lateral stability, resulting from the installation of a new flight control system. Its flight testing began at the end of 1951, getting destroyed due to an engine stoppage on 9 October 1952.
The IAE 33-04, built in 1953, was equipped with four hydraulic operated airbrakes on the rear section of the fuselage and fences on the upper side of the wings, to delay the migration of the center of pressure at transonic speeds. It had an improved pressurized system and was armed with four Hispano-Suiza Mk.5 cannons of 20 mm installed under the air duct. During the flight tests performed in 1954, the 04 reached an absolute ceiling of 15,000 m and 1,080 km/h maximum speed.
The IAE 33-05 was started in 1957, without fences but with four anti-spin fins in the rear section of the fuselage, flying for the first time on 18 September 1955 and the last in 1960. The IAE 33 airframe was built entirely of light alloy. The wings, spanning 10.6 m, with 40/45-degree rear swept angle and 8 per cent thickness, housed two fuel tanks with 150 liters of capacity each, two with 154 liters, two with 170 liters and two with 160 liters, as well as the ailerons and the hydraulically operated flaps.
The fuselage housed the pressurized cockpit, with armored windshield, one Mk.IIc gyro-gunsight from a Gloster
Meteor F.Mk.4, and Martin-Baker Mk.1 ejector seat, the armament, the landing gear, the air intake with bifurcated air duct, three fuel tanks with 656, 485 and 156 liters of capacity, the engine pressure compensation chamber, the turbojet, the tailpipe, four airbrakes ant the 35-degree rear swept tailfin. The tail plane, with 45-degree rear swept, was fitted with an electric motor to vary its incidence.
Both the Dutch and Egyptian governments were interested in the acquisition of the IAE 33. An all-weather version with radar, two
Sidewinder missiles and a Rolls Royce AJ65
Avon turbojet was also planned. It would have been a good competitor to the Sabre K, but the coup of 16 September 1955 ended production plans.
In 1947, the German aerodynamicists Hans Multhopp and Martin Winter received the request to design an experimental airplane able to fly at Mach 1.24. The project was developed at the Royal Aircraft Establishment (R.A.E.) of Farnborough, using all the aerodynamic research done for the Focke-Wulf Ta 183 as a basis. It was too advanced for its time, with a 60-degree rear swept wing and the pilot in prone position to best reduce the size of the frontal area of the fuselage, with a diameter of just 1.20 m.
A jettisonable trolley would help it for taking-off and a retractable skid system for landing, although their small fuel capacity and the high consumption rate of the turbojet advised its launching from a bomber in the same fashion than the American Bell X-1, the DFS 346 tested in the Soviet Union or the unmanned prototypes of the Miles M.52.
The project was not cancelled but evolved and converted itself into the Hawker P.1067, a predecessor of the Hawker Hunter, based in the Spec F3/48.
The British used the T-tail plane formula in the experimental airplanes and projects Avro 724, Armstrong Whitworth AW.58 and AW.169, BAC VC 10, Blackburn B.89, Bristol Type 177, 178, 183 and 188, de Havilland D.H.116, Fairey ‘
Delta 1’, Gloster P.250, 259, 272, 285, 356 and F.135D, Handley Page H.P. 88 and
Victor, Hawker P.1062, 1064, 1068 and 1097, Saunders-Roe P.121, 148, 149, 163 and 187, Short P.D7, Westland PJD.143 and W.37.
RAE Transonic Project Technical Data
Wings: with 60-degree rear swept at the leading edge, 42-degree at the trailing edge, 6 per cent thickness/chord ratio at the root and 10 per cent at the tip; Tail surfaces: tailplane with 60-degree rear swept at the leading edge, 46-degree at the trailing edge, tailfin with 67-degree rear swept containing the cooling system; Fuselage: with circular section, prone pilot housed in a transparent container within the air duct with ventral hatch; Landing gear: two hydraulically retractable skids; Engine: one Rolls Royce AJ65
Avon turbojet with 2,722 kg static thrust; Fuel tanks: in the wings, ahead of the main spar; Wingspan: 7.62 m; Length: 10.29 m; Height (folded skids): 2.4 m; Wing area: 17 sq. m; Estimated maximum speed: Mach 1.24 at 10,975 m; Initial climb rate: 71 m/sec;
Service ceiling: 18,290 m; Powered endurance: 30 minutes; Touchdown speed: 275 km/h.
In January 1951,
Aviation Age magazine published an eye-catching picture of a Soviet fighter like the Focke-Wulf Ta 183, with a large tailfin of the same length as the fuselage and two fences in each wing panel, with the caption:
The latest product of Russia’s aircraft designers, a very fast interceptor-fighter designated MiG-19. The dark painting, the red stars bordered with white, the number ‘125’ painted in the nose section and the radical aerodynamic design were a very credible set for the public, but it did not deceive the experts who ruled that an airplane with these characteristics would be useless as a weapons platform, due to excessive snaking.
In December 1951, the
Flying magazine published a different version with mid-mounted wings, mid-high tail plane, the number “16” painted in the nose section and the following text: “This new, unidentified Red interceptor shows trend of Russian design. It has rocket motor installed above its axial turbojet at base of dorsal fin”.
In the book
Military Aircraft of the USSR-New Types published in 1952 an “Unidentified fighter 1951” is described with three views black silhouettes and three illustrations by Bjorn Karlström depicting a tadpole-like, high-speed fighter with high-set wing and T-tail plane. The aircraft with the number “172” painted in the nose section was very similar to that of
Aviation Age.
The MiG I-360 (SM-2/1) was flown on May 24, 1952. The aircraft was the prototype of the real MiG-19 and was fitted with one “Focke-Wulf style” T-tail plane.
In 1953
Aeromodeller Annual published one drawing by André Dautin depicting the “Yak-25” Soviet fighter, based in the
Aviation Age picture.
In February 1954
Flying published a very detailed cutaway of the
Aviation Age version.
In 1957,
Flight magazine published the
Aviation Age picture, including some
technical data: supersonic speed, 45,000 ft. ceiling, 34 ft. wingspan, 12 ft. height and over 14,000 lb. maximum weight. According with
Flight “this weird-looking red jet is apparently the latest in the MiG series to be observed, it reportedly has a rocket installed where rudder joint the fuselage bottom, for added combat speed”.
The same information was published by Italian magazines
Cielo (December 1953) and
Aerei d‘Oltre Cortina (Ed. Roma, 1955).
In April 1956
Avion magazine described the "MiG-19" (shown in Tushino on 1951) as a possible failure: “According to some sources entered in service by 1953, but in very limited numbers. The MiG-17
Fresco was preferred for mass-production”.
It looks like a description of the Lavochkin La-15.
In June 1953 the model maker
Aurora released a 1/48 scale model plastic kit, called “Yak-25”, based on the
Aviation Age version but with a nose radome inspired by the real prototype MiG-15bis (SP-1). In the 1954 and 1958 editions the name was changed to “Russian MiG-19” on the kit box art, describing it as “one of the Soviet Union´s latest and most dangerous fighters”.
The aircraft was also found its way into plastic kits from other companies and even into bubble gum cards. In 1999 the VAC-Form version was released by
Harold Bickford Models as “MiG-19 Not!”
