The Socata TB 30 Epsilon is a light military trainer aircraft produced by

SOCATA SOCATA (later EADS Socata and DAHER-SOCATA) was a French producer of general aviation aircraft propelled by piston engines and turboprops, including business planes, small personal or training aircraft, as well as the production of aircraft stru ...

(then part of

Aérospatiale Aérospatiale () was a major French state-owned aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and arms industry, defence corporation. It was founded in 1970 as () through the merger of three established state-owned companies: Sud Aviation, Nord Aviation ...

). It is a tandem two-seater with a metal airframe. The first prototype flew on 22 December 1979.

Design and development

In 1978, the

French Air Force The French Air and Space Force (, , ) is the air force, air and space force of the French Armed Forces. Formed in 1909 as the ("Aeronautical Service"), a service arm of the French Army, it became an independent military branch in 1934 as the Fr ...

(''Armée de l'Air'') published a requirement for a new basic trainer aircraft to partially replace the

Fouga Magister The Fouga CM.170 Magister is a 1950s French two-seat jet trainer aircraft that was developed and manufactured by French aircraft manufacturer ''Établissements Fouga & Cie''. Easily recognizable by its V-tail, almost 1,000 have been built in Fr ...

in the early parts of the syllabus for pilot training. The new aircraft was expected to have tandem seating, be powered by a 224 kW (300 hp) piston engine and have a three-hour endurance. Similar designs were proposed by the

subsidiary of

(based on their TB 10 Tobago light aircraft) and by GEPAL (the GEPAL Mk II). The SOCATA proposal, the TB 30B, was chosen in February 1979.Jackson 1987, p. 8. The first of two prototypes flew on 22 December 1979,Taylor 1988, p. 56. but testing showed that the Epsilon had poor handling and it was redesigned with a new swept back fin supplemented by a ventral strake and a larger

tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabilizer, is a small lift (force), lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters ...

, while the wing was fitted with elliptical tips increasing the wingspan from 7.40 m (24 ft 3 in) to 7.59 m (24 ft 11 in). The first prototype flew again with these changes on 31 October 1980, and it was soon found that the handling problems had been fixed.Jackson 1987, pp. 9–10. The Epsilon is a low winged

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is unsupported at one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cantilev ...

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

of all metal construction. It is powered by a

Lycoming O-540 The Lycoming O-540 is a family of air-cooled six-cylinder, horizontally opposed fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter engines of displacement, manufactured by Lycoming Engines. The engine is a six-cylinder version of the four-cylinder Lycoming O- ...

flat-six A flat-six engine, also known as a horizontally opposed-six, is a six-cylinder piston engine with three cylinders on each side of a central crankshaft. The most common type of flat-six engine is the boxer-six engine, where each pair of opposed c ...

piston engine A reciprocating engine, more often known as a piston engine, is a heat engine that uses one or more Reciprocating motion, reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a Circular motion, rotating motion. This article ...

driving a two-blade propeller, and is fitted with a retractable nosewheel undercarriage. The pilot and instructor are sat in tandem under a sliding

Plexiglas Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is a synthetic polymer derived from methyl methacrylate. It is a transparent thermoplastic, used as an engineering plastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and bra ...

canopy, with cockpit layout designed to aid transition to the

Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet The Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet is a attack aircraft, light attack jet aircraft, jet and advanced jet trainer co-manufactured by Dassault Aviation of France and Dornier Flugzeugwerke of Germany. It was developed specifically to perform trainer a ...

to which French students graduate after completing the Epsilon part of their training syllabus.Jackson 1987, pp. 10–11. The first prototype was modified into a testbed for the Turbomeca TP 319 Arrius

turboprop A turboprop is a Gas turbine, gas turbine engine that drives an aircraft Propeller (aeronautics), propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction drive, reduction gearbox, gas compressor, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propellin ...

engine, flying in this form on 9 November 1985. The testbed was then modified into a dedicated turboprop trainer, the TB 31 Oméga, powered by a 360 kW (483 shp) Arrius 1A2 and fitted with

ejection seat In aircraft, an ejection seat or ejector seat is a system designed to rescue the aircraft pilot, pilot or other aircrew, crew of an aircraft (usually military) in an emergency. In most designs, the seat is propelled out of the aircraft by an exp ...

s, returning to flight on 30 April 1989.Lambert 1990, p. 88. While it was offered for the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

Joint Primary Aircraft Training System The Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS) was an aircraft procurement program of the United States in the 1990s by the United States Air Force and United States Navy, a merger of 1980s era training aircraft programs. The winner was dec ...

competition to replace the

Beechcraft T-34 Mentor The Beechcraft T-34 Mentor is an American propeller-driven, single-engined, military trainer aircraft derived from the Beechcraft Bonanza, Beechcraft Model 35 Bonanza. The earlier versions of the T-34, dating from around the late 1940s to the ...

and

Cessna T-37 Tweet The Cessna T-37 Tweet (designated Model 318 by Cessna) is a small, economical twin-engine jet trainer aircraft. It was flown for decades as a primary trainer of the United States Air Force (USAF) as well as in the air forces of several other nati ...

, it was rejected, with no sales resulting.Lambert 1993, pp. 92–93.

Operational history

The ''Armée de l'Air'' placed an initial order for 30 Epsilons in 1981, with further contracts following with a total of 150 ordered.Jackson 1987, p. 9. First deliveries started in 1983, with the first training courses based on the Epsilon starting in September 1984.Jackson 1987, pp. 11–15. Export orders were received from

Togo Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to Ghana–Togo border, the west, Benin to Benin–Togo border, the east and Burkina Faso to Burkina Faso–Togo border, the north. It is one of the le ...

for three armed Epsilons in 1984, delivered in 1986 (with a fourth supplied later to replace a crashed aircraft) and from

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

in 1987 for 18 aircraft, to be assembled in Portugal by

OGMA Ogma () is a god from Irish mythology, Irish and Scottish mythology. A member of the Tuatha Dé Danann, he is often considered a deity and may be related to the Gauls, Gallic god Ogmios. According to the In Lebor Ogaim, Ogam Tract, he is the i ...

Variants

* TB 30 Epsilon: Military trainer aircraft * TB 31 Oméga: Proposed turboprop powered version of the TB 30 Epsilon. Only one aircraft built

Operators

Current

; *

Portuguese Air Force The Portuguese Air Force () is the air force, aerial warfare force of Portugal. Locally it is referred to by the acronym FAP but internationally is often referred to by the acronym PRTAF. It is the youngest of the three branches of the Portuguese ...

; * Senegalese Air Force ; * Togolese Air Force

Former operators

; *

Hoyle ''Flight International'' 2012, p. 50.

Specifications

References

Notes

Bibliography

* "Directory: World's Air Forces". ''Flight International,'' 11–17 November 2008, pp. 52–76. * Donald, David. ''The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft''. Etobicoke, Ontario: Prospero Books, 1997, pp. 19–20. . * Hoyle, Craig.
"Directory: World Air Forces".
''Flight International'', Vol. 178, No. 5257, 14–20 September 2010, pp. 26–53. * Hoyle, Craig. "World Air Forces Directory". ''

Flight International ''Flight International'', formerly ''Flight'', is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", i ...

'', Vol. 182, No. 5370, 11–17 December 2012. pp. 40–64. * Jackson, Paul. "Epsilon ... The Tractable Trainer from Tarbes". ''Air International,'' Volume 32, No. 1, January 1987, pp. 7–15. ISSN 0306-5634. * Lambert, Mark. ''Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1990–91''. Coulsdon, UK: Jane's Defence Data, 1990. . * Lambert, Mark. ''Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1993–94.'' Coulsdon, UK: Jane's Data Division, 1993. . * * * * Taylor, John W.R. ''Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1988-89.'' Coulsdon, UK: Jane's Defence Data, 1988. .

External links

{{SOCATA/Daher aircraft

Epsilon Epsilon (, ; uppercase , lowercase or ; ) is the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet, corresponding phonetically to a mid front unrounded vowel or . In the system of Greek numerals it also has the value five. It was derived from the Phoenic ...

1970s French military trainer aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1979 Aircraft with retractable tricycle landing gear Single-engined piston aircraft