The origin of the AMX project goes back to mid-1977, when Aeronautica Macchi, better known as Aermacchi, announced a new joint proposal with Embraer. Designated MB 340, it was a new single-seat ground-attack aircraft aimed to meet the A-X requirement for the Força Aérea Brasileira.
In that same year, with less publicity, Aeritalia’s Combat Aircraft Group in Turin had begun the development of its own subsonic single-seat/single-engined combat aircraft. After the decision to drop the G 291 project, a re-winged/single-engined G 91Y, Aeritalia considered a number of configurations, before to focus on an aircraft larger than the MB 340, intended as a replacement for the IAF G 91R and G 91Y then in service.
Aeritalia’s initial choice was for an aircraft powered by a non-afterburning variant of the Turbo-Union RB.199 - a logical and logistically highly compatible choice - employing the same engine as the Tornado.
On June 8, 1978, under pressure from the IAF, who abhorred competing national products, Aeritalia and Aermacchi announced their intention to join forces to develop a common type to meet future ground attack aircraft requirement.
In October that same year, in a surprise decision, the top echelons of the IAF imposed that the new aircraft would be powered by a GFE (Government Furnished Equipment) 49kN Rolls-Royce RB168-807 Spey turbofan, a militarized version of a civil engine, on the grounds of “reliability”. The repeated engine problems, one of which caused the loss of the first AMX prototype and the death of Aeritalia’s Chief Test Pilot Manlio Quarantelli, led to a much disputed complete redesign of the compressor by Rolls-Royce.
Now designated AM-X (Aeritalia Macchi-Experimental), since at this stage of the programme the aircraft was considered an Aeritalia product, with Aermacchi acting as an associate contractor, a balanced industrial consortium consisting of Aeritalia (46.5%), Aermacchi (23.8%) and Embraer of Brazil (29.7%) was set up in 1981 to produce the aircraft.
When the AMX-T two-seat version was launched, the IAF re-equipment plan was extended to the G 91T advanced trainer. Consequently a total of 187 single-seaters and 51 two-seaters, in four batches, were needed by the Italian Air Force. In turn, the FAB’s requirements rose to 65 single-seat AMX, and 14 two-seat AMX-T, respectively designated A-1A and A-1B, in Brazilian service.
The main differences between the AMX aircraft assembled in Brazil and in Italy include the fixed armament layout: one 30 mm Bernardini Mk-164 (Brazilian version of the DEFA 554 revolver cannon) on each side of the lower forward fuselage for the Brazilian Air Force; a single M61A1 Vulcan multi-barrel 20 mm Gatling cannon in the port side, for the Italian Air Force. The Brazilian and Italian versions of the AMX differ also for the type of wingtip mounted infra-red air-to-air missiles: two MAA-1 Piranhas for the FAB and two Sidewinder AIM-9Ls for the IAF. Another FAB-only peculiarity is a forward fuselage bay for three interchangeable pallet mounted photographic systems.
Following the implosion of the Soviet Union in 1989, the “fourth batch” AMX were abruptly cancelled, delivering a fatal blow to the AMX programme and any prospective export sales of the Italian-Brazilian attack aircraft.
When AMX production ended in the mid-‘90s, 110 single-seat and 26 two-seat AMXs had been delivered to the IAF; 45 single-seaters and 11 two-seaters had joined the ranks of the FAB.
(Aeromedia)
|
