The Piaggio P.149 is a 1950s

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

utility In economics, utility is a measure of a certain person's satisfaction from a certain state of the world. Over time, the term has been used with at least two meanings. * In a normative context, utility refers to a goal or objective that we wish ...

and

liaison aircraft A liaison aircraft (also called an army cooperation aircraft) is a small, usually unarmed aircraft primarily used by military forces for artillery observation or transporting commanders and messages. Operation The concept developed before Worl ...

designed and built by

Piaggio Piaggio Group () is an Italian motor vehicle manufacturer, which produces a range of two-wheeled motor vehicles and compact commercial vehicles under five brands: Piaggio, Vespa, Aprilia, Moto Guzzi and Derbi. Its corporate headquarters are ...

. The aircraft was built under licence by

Focke-Wulf Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG () was a German manufacturer of civil and military aircraft before and during World War II. Many of the company's successful fighter aircraft designs were slight modifications of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190. It is one of the ...

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

as the FWP.149D.

Development

The P.149 was developed as a four-seat touring variant of the earlier P.148. The P.149 is an all-metal, low-wing

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 ...

with a retractable

tricycle landing gear Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', that is arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has one or more nose wheels in a single front undercarriage and two or more main wheels slightly aft of th ...

with room for four or five occupants. The

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...

first flew on 19 June 1953.Simpson 1995, p. 279 Only a few were sold, until the

German Air Force The German Air Force (, ) is the aerial warfare branch of the , the armed forces of Germany. The German Air Force (as part of the ) was founded in 1956 during the era of the Cold War as the aerial warfare branch of the armed forces of West Ger ...

selected the aircraft for a

training Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or fitness that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, productivity and performance. I ...

and utility role. Piaggio delivered 76 aircraft out of a total of 88 built in Italy to Germany, while another 190 were built in Germany by

Operational history

The aircraft was operated by the

between 1957 and 1990.

Swissair Swissair (German language, German: Schweizerische Luftverkehr-AG; French language, French: S.A. Suisse pour la Navigation Aérienne, stylised as swissair) was the Flag carrier, national airline of Switzerland between its founding in 1931 and ban ...

's Flying School based at Bern (Belp) airfield used a small fleet of the type to provide primary instruction to trainee pilots.Gandet 2001, pp. 42–43.

Operators

; *

Wheeler 1980, p. 1339. *

Marineflieger The ''Marinefliegerkommando'' (Naval Aviation Command) is the Naval aviation, naval air arm of the German Navy. It is aircraft flown by the Navy of Germany, and mostly consists of helicopters and fixed-wing maritime patrol aircraft, as well as ty ...

; *

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; , commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial and space warfare branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Indep ...

; *

Italian Air Force The Italian Air Force (; AM, ) is the air force of the Italy, Italian Republic. The Italian Air Force was founded as an independent service arm on 28 March 1923 by Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, King Victor Emmanuel III as the ("Royal Air Force ...

operated two Piaggio P.149Ds from 1953 until 1955 ; *

Nigerian Air Force The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) is the air branch of the Nigerian Armed Forces. It is the youngest branch of the Nigerian Armed Forces, established four years after the nation became independent. As at 2021, the air force is one of the largest in A ...

operated 12 Piaggo P.149D in 1967 ; *

Flying School ; *

Tanzanian Air Force The Tanzania Air Force Command () is the aerial service branch of the Tanzania People's Defence Force (TPDF). The current commander of the Tanzania Air Force Command is Major General Shaban Mani, who replaced major general Ingram upon the la ...

Donald 1997, p. 735. ; :

Ugandan Air Force Uganda People's Defence Force Air Force, more commonly known as the Ugandan Air Force, is a branch of the Uganda People's Defence Force. Its headquarters are located at Entebbe, Uganda. The current air force commander is Charles Lutaaya, while ...

Wheeler 1980, p. 1374.

Specifications (P.149D)

Citations

References

* Donald, David. ''The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft''. Leicester, UK: Blitz Editions, 1997. . * Gandet, Erich. "'Wulf' in Sheep's Clothing: Farewell to Swissair's P.149s". ''

Air Enthusiast ''Air Enthusiast'' was a British, bi-monthly, aviation magazine, published by the Key Publishing group. Initially begun in 1974 as ''Air Enthusiast Quarterly'', the magazine was conceived as a historical adjunct to ''Air International'' magaz ...

''. No. 92. March/April 2001. pp. 42–43. . * The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982–1985), 1985, Orbis Publishing, Page 2714. * Simpson, R. W. ''Airlifes General Aviation''. Shrewsbury, UK: Airlife Publishing Ltd., Second edition, 1995. . * Stevens, James Hay
"Fully Aerobatic Four-Seater"
''

Flight Flight or flying is the motion (physics), motion of an Physical object, object through an atmosphere, or through the vacuum of Outer space, space, without contacting any planetary surface. This can be achieved by generating aerodynamic lift ass ...

'', 18 July 1958, p. 73. * Wheeler, Barry C
"World's Air Forces 1980"
''

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 ...

'', 4 October 1980. pp. 1323–1378.

External links

{{Portal bar, Italy, Companies, Aviation P.149 1950s Italian military trainer aircraft 1950s Italian military utility aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1953 Focke-Wulf aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Low-wing aircraft