Piaggio P.149 Explained

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.^[1] The prototype first flew on 19 June 1953.^[2]

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.^[2]

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.^[3]

Operators

• German Air Force^[4]
• Marineflieger^[5]

• Israeli Air Force^[6]

• Italian Air Force operated two Piaggio P.149Ds from 1953 until 1955^[7]

• Nigerian Air Force operated 12 Piaggo P.149D in 1967^[8]

• Swissair Flying School^[3]

• Tanzanian Air Force^[9]

Ugandan Air Force^[10]

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.

Notes and References

1. Stevens 1958, p. 73
2. Simpson 1995, p. 279
3. Gandet 2001, pp. 42–43.
4. Wheeler 1980, p. 1339.
5. http://www.geschichte.luftwaffe.de/portal/a/geschlw/!ut/p/c4/04_SB8K8xLLM9MSSzPy8xBz9CP3I5EyrpHK9nPL49NTi5Iyccr3yxLS0VD0guzQnrUqvIDMxPT0zX78g21ERAGZCIuY!/ Piaggio P-149D
6. Web site: Piaggio P.149D. Israeli Airforce Website. 27 July 2016.
7. Web site: Italian Air Force . aeroflight . 31 May 2019.
8. Book: Jowett, Philip. Modern African Wars (5): The Nigerian-Biafran War 1967-70. 2016. Osprey Publishing Press. Oxford. 978-1472816092. 17.
9. Donald 1997, p. 735.
10. Wheeler 1980, p. 1374.