The Piaggio P.149 is a 1950s Italian utility and liaison aircraft designed and built by Piaggio. The aircraft was built under licence by Focke-Wulf in West Germany 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 monoplane with a retractable tricycle landing gear with room for four or five occupants. The prototype first flew on 19 June 1953.
Only a few were sold, until the German Air Force selected the aircraft for a training 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 Focke-Wulf.
Operational history
The aircraft was operated by the German Air Force between 1957 and 1990.
Swissair's Flying School based at Bern (Belp) airfield used a small fleet of the type to provide primary instruction to trainee pilots.
Operators
German Air Force
Marineflieger
Israeli Air Force
Italian Air Force operated two Piaggio P.149Ds from 1953 until 1955
Nigerian Air Force operated 12 Piaggo P.149D in 1967
Swissair Flying School
Tanzanian Air Force
Ugandan Air Force
Specifications (P.149D)
See also
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. 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, 18 July 1958, p. 73. Wheeler, Barry C. "World's Air Forces 1980". Flight International, 4 October 1980. pp. 1323–1378.