An Avro on the Córdoba runway

The Fábrica Militar de Aviones was founded in Córdoba on 10 October 1927, and on 18 July 1928 its first aircraft rolled out for testing: a licence-built Avro 504 Gosport trainer with a 100 hp Gnome engine, good for 140 km/h. Licence production and home designs followed, mostly for the air force. The prefixes on its aircraft tell its story: Ae for the Dirección General de Aerotécnica until 1936, F.M.A. from 1938, and I.Ae. and later IA for the Instituto Aerotécnico from 1943, run in the 1940s by the military engineer Juan Ignacio San Martín.

Dewoitine, Tank and the Pulqui

Perón’s Argentina offered something unusual after 1945: work for European aircraft designers no longer welcome at home. Émile Dewoitine, convicted in absentia in France, led the team behind the I.Ae.27 Pulqui I, which flew on 9 August 1947 as the first jet fighter built in Latin America. The former Focke-Wulf designer Kurt Tank followed with the swept-wing Pulqui II, first flown on 27 June 1950. Only one Pulqui I and five Pulqui II airframes were built; neither went into production.

The Pucará goes to war

The factory’s most famous design came in the 1960s. The twin-turboprop IA 58 Pucará, named after the Quechua word for fortress, first flew on 20 August 1969 as a tough counter-insurgency aircraft able to use rough strips. About 60 had been delivered by 1982, and in the Falklands War they flew from Port Stanley, Goose Green and Pebble Island. Six were destroyed in the SAS raid on Pebble Island on 15 May, but on 28 May two Pucarás shot down a Royal Marines Scout helicopter, the only confirmed Argentine air-to-air victory of the war. 110 were built in all.

Pampa, Lockheed and back to the state

The IA 63 Pampa jet trainer, developed with Dornier, flew on 6 October 1984. Eleven years later President Carlos Menem privatised the factory as a concession to Lockheed Martin, which ran it as Lockheed Martin Aircraft Argentina, mostly on maintenance and upgrades. In 2009 the state bought it back for about $110 million and renamed it FAdeA after Brigadier San Martín. It has since built new Pampa IIIs, parts for Embraer’s KC-390 and modernised C-130s.

Fábricas

• Córdoba works · Córdoba — Site since 1927, now FAdeA

Gente

• Juan Ignacio San Martín · military engineer, director of the Instituto Aerotécnico — FAdeA is named after him
• Émile Dewoitine · designer — Led the Pulqui I team
• Kurt Tank · designer — Ex-Focke-Wulf; led the Pulqui II

Récords y primicias

• First jet fighter built in Latin America, Pulqui I, 1947
• Only confirmed Argentine air-to-air victory of the Falklands War, by two Pucarás, 28 May 1982