Piaggio P.149

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.

External links