Short Tucano - Design and Development

Design and Development

Development of the Tucano started in May 1984 after an agreement between Embraer and Short Brothers to meet a requirement to replace the BAC Jet Provost as a basic trainer with the Royal Air Force.

The Royal Air Force issued Air Staff Target 412 to define the requirement for a high-performance turbo-prop trainer. A short-list of designs competed for the contract, as well as the Tucano the other types considered were the Pilatus PC-9, NDN-1T Turbo-Firecracker and Australian Aircraft Consortium (AAC) A.20 Wamira II.

In 1984 Embraer sent to Shorts the seventh EMB-312 airframe off the production line for modifications in order to meet AST-412 requirements. The type was displayed in September 1984 at the Farnborough Airshow featuring an uprated PT6A-25C2 engine and a ventral air-brake to meet required stall speed of 60kt. However, tests undertaken at Boscombe Down later on that year indicated the need to re-engine the aircraft (to meet the RAF requirement for time to height) and Garrett TPE331 was chosen.

On 21 March 1985, the Short Tucano proposal was declared winner of the AST.412 contract worth £126 million for 130 aircraft and an option for further 15. First flight of the prototype EMB-312G2 which featured a four-bladed Hartzell propeller with the Garrett TPE331-10 engine took place in Brazil on 14 February of the following year, the aircraft was then disassembled and airlified back to Belfast on 29 March 1986 to fly again just 10 days later. In June, the TPE331-10 engine was replaced by the TPE331-12B which is equipped with an Electronic Engine Controller (EEC), The first standard production model T.Mk 1 was flown on 30 December 1996 and the official roll-out took place in 20 January 1987. A second prototype flew on 10 March 1987, and, by April a third had joined the test fleet for clearance and final testing at Boscombe Down. The fourth build aircraft was the first delivered to the RAF on 16 June 1988 at the Central Flying School, while the last delivery to RAF occurred 25 January 1993. In order to meet RAF requirements, the EMB-312 has some 900 modifications reducing commonality with the original aircraft to only 50%12 units were exported to Kenya and 16 to Kuwait.

In addition to the revised engine, the major differences of the Shorts Tucano are a strengthened airframe for an improved fatigue life, a cockpit layout similar to the Hawk advanced trainer, a revised oxygen system, a flight data recorder, a four-bladed propeller, ventral airbrake and restyled wingtips. Two Martin-Baker MB 8LC ejection seats are used and the canopy was modified to meet the RAF's bird strike requirements.