The Embraer-312 Tucano is regarded as a highly successful and low cost trainer aircraft with
over 600 units built and that has been operated by air forces from 16 different countries
including Brazil, Argentina, France, the UK, Egypt, Iran and even some civilian companies
in the US.
Given that every aircraft has its own history, in this video we will be taking look on why
Brazil decided to develop the Tucano and more specifically, we will talk about why the Brazilian
Air Force ditched the relatively new and modern Cessna T-37 jet trainer in favour of the turbo-prop
design made by Embraer - a company that at that time had never manufactured a trainer aircraft.
First, let’s go on a brief overview of Brazilian-American relations starting with the Second World War
and how the Brazilian Air Force acquired the Cessna T-37 from the US.
The Brazilian Air Force was created in 1941 when the air arms of both the army and navy
were merged into one and at that time virtually all of its equipment was outdated.
When Brazil joined the war in 1942, the United States helped to train Brazilian pilots and
through the land & lease act supplied modern aircraft such as the PBY Catalina for maritime
patrol and the P-47 as a fighter bomber.
The relationship between the two countries was further strengthened when Brazil sent
a fighter squadron and an infantry division to fight in the Italian front together with
American units, it is noteworthy to say that Brazil was the only Latin American country
to commit troops to Europe during the war.
With the end of Second World War, the United States created the Military Assistance Program
from 1946 to 1955 in order to furnish allied nations against the threat of communism with
both equipment and training.
Brazil joined the program in 1953 and from the Brazilian perspective this program was
of extreme importance because in later years it allowed Brazil to purchase modern military
aircraft such as the C-46, the F-5 and lastly the Cessna T-37C jet trainer.
In 1966 the Brazilian government purchased a batch of 40 T-37s and subsequently ordered
a second batch of 25 aircraft, thus a total of 65 aircraft were ordered to replace the
aging T-6 Texan in the advanced instruction course for military pilots.
The Cessnas started flying in Brazil in 1967 but considering the lifespan of a trainer
aircraft they were retired very early - in the year of 1980 and just so you have a perspective,
the T-37s were retired from service in the United States in the year of 2009 - and the
development of the Embraer Tucano was a direct response to the loss of the T-37 fleet.
Now if Brazil had purchased all these new jet trainer aircraft, the question that comes
to mind is why was the air force removing them from service so early?
I mean, 13 years in the life of a jet trainer isn’t much.
Now the reality is that the Brazilian Air Force actually didn’t want to retire the
T-37, but they were forced to by - guess who - the United States via the manufacturer of
the aircraft - Cessna.
Now I know this sounds very counterintuitive with the US forcing an allied nation to retire
an American aircraft from its air force, but there is an explanation for that.
In order to answer why the T-37s were retired and subsequently replaced by the Tucanos,
we must talk about the Brazilian nuclear program.
So in 1950 Brazil established the National Research Council whose focus was on nuclear
energy and its development.
In 1964, with the coup d’etat orchestrated by the Brazilian military, the new government
enacted policies whose goal was to ensure production and handling of nuclear fuel could
all be done domestically.
In order to develop its nuclear industry, Brazil partnered with West Germany and had
some very ambitious goals including the construction of 12 nuclear powerplants by the year of 1990
in order to diversify its sources of energy.
Although most of the efforts were put on the peaceful usage of nuclear energy, the military
government did consider military applications of the nuclear technology - hence Brazil opposed
and did not sign the Treaty of Non-Nuclear Proliferation on the grounds that it violated
its national sovereignty.
Taking India as an example of a country that was able to develop nuclear weapons, the Carter
administration in the US started to apply pressure on Brazil to abandon or at least
change its nuclear policy.
As response to the American pressure due to the Brazilian nuclear program and also human
right abuses and political persecution by the regime, the president of Brazil, Ernesto
Geisel, decided to withdraw Brazil from the military assistance program on March of 1977.
As a retaliation to Brazil’s leave of the MAP the US decided to show how Brazil was
dependant on their help by removing Brazil’s ability to train its pilots.
A few days later the Brazilian Aeronautics Command received a letter from Cessna stating
that due to programing and production reasons, Cessna would not be able to supply parts or
technical assistance after a period of two years.
Clearly Cessna was only obeying the American government because at that time the T-37 was
still flying in several air forces so their inability to provide spare parts or assistance
was not true and is worth saying that the T-37 is still in operation in some air forces
even today.
With that said, Brazil had no other choice other than to look for another advanced aircraft
to replace the T-37 since its days were counted.
This is where Embraer and first ideas of the Tucano come in.
Since Embraer was a government owned company at the time, the news about the early retirement
of Cessna T-37s reached the company fairly quickly but Embraer had two big disadvantages
when it came to manufacturing a replacement aircraft.
First, two years isn’t much time for the development of a new aircraft and it was thought
that in all likelihood the Brazilian Air Force would be buying an existing foreign trainer aircraft.
Second, even if the Brazilian Air Force was to work with Embraer on such a tight schedule,
they would be working with a company that was primarily focused on the civilian market
and had no experience in designing or building a trainer aircraft for the military.
But it turns out that Embraer did have some experience in that field.
Amongst its employees was the Hungarian, and later Brazilian, aeronautical engineer Joseph
Kovács who had previously worked on the Neiva T-25 Universal trainer aircraft which was
at the time being used by the Brazilian Air Force as a trainer and counter insurgency aircraft.
After much discussion between his team, Embraer came to the conclusion that it had to offer
an aircraft with unique features in order for it to differentiate itself from the competition
and that at the same time ensured that the aircraft could be exported to other countries
because orders from the Brazilian Air Force alone wouldn’t justify the development and
manufacturing costs of the aircraft.
By this time most air forces believed that a jet trainer aircraft was the ideal platform
to train fighter pilots because of the introduction of jet propulsion during the training phase.
At the same time many air forces preferred the side-by-side configuration since it was
easier for the instructor to see and correct the mistakes of the student like in the Cessna
T-37 and Canadair Tutor for example.
But Embraer the did exact the opposite, recognizing the high maintenance and operational costs
of jet aircraft, especially with the soaring prices of jet fuel in the 1970s, Embraer proposed
two project for a low cost advanced general trainer aircraft in the tandem configuration
to the Brazilian Air Force in 1977.
The first one was the EMB-301, a conventional design for an aircraft powered by 380hp piston
engine geared to advanced flight training including formation flying, aerobatics, IFR
flying and aerial gunnery.
Additionally, this same aircraft could be used for reconnaissance, observation and attack missions.
However, after several discussions and comparisons with other aircraft Embraer thought the 301
was neither unique nor bold enough and therefore submitted another proposal to the Brazilian Air Force.
This was the EMB-311, an improved design with a much more powerful 750shp Pratt and Whitney
Canada PT-6 turboprop engine, longer range, better maneuverability and six hardpoints
instead of four from the previous 301 project.
Listing the specifications of the two aircraft would go beyond the scope of this video but
in the end the Brazilian Air Force showed interest in Embraer’s second proposal.
Project 301 was abandoned and several discussions were held between the Brazilian Air Force
and Embraer for modifications on the Embraer 311 which later became the Embraer 312 Tucano.
So to summarize what has been mentioned in this video, the development of the Tucano
was a direct consequence to the early deactivation of the Cessna T-37s by the Brazilian Air Force.
Now Brazil never wanted to retire the jets but they were forced to so thanks to American
pressure during the Carter Administration via Cessna which in turn had the goal of changing
Brazil’s nuclear policy.
Having to find another advanced trainer aircraft in a short period of time, the Brazilian Air
Force decided that it would be better to give Embraer a chance because the prospect of a
low cost advanced trainer that could also be used in counter insurgency operations was
better than buying an existing jet aircraft which would be very costly to acquire and
operate - keeping in mind the decision was taken on the late 1970s during the soaring
prices of oil.
Of course, there were other features on the design of the Tucano which improved the cost-benefit
ratio of the aircraft but getting into them would be the topic for another video.
At least for Embraer the financial aspect was one of the great differentials of the
Tucano and reason why the aircraft was exported to many other countries.
Sources are in the description and I hope you have learnt something new in this video.
Anyways, thank you for watching and see you next time!