Taking the factory back

The Córdoba works that became FAdeA opened on 10 October 1927 as the Instituto Aerotécnico, founded under Francisco de Arteaga, and took the name Fábrica Militar de Aviones in 1943. In 1995 Argentina privatised it, handing it to Lockheed Martin Aircraft Argentina on a 25-year concession with two possible ten-year extensions. Fourteen years later the state changed its mind. In 2009 the factory was nationalised, Lockheed Martin received 67 million pesos in compensation, and the company re-emerged as Fábrica Argentina de Aviones “Brigadier San Martín”, FAdeA.

An inheritance of firsts

FAdeA inherited a remarkable lineage. The Córdoba plant built the Pulqui I of 1947, the first jet fighter in Latin America, and the swept-wing Pulqui II of 1950. It produced 217 IA-46 Ranquel utility aircraft, 35 IA-50 Guaraní II transports and 120 IA-58 Pucará counter-insurgency aircraft, a twin-turboprop attack aircraft. Its last major original design before privatisation was the IA-63 Pampa jet trainer, which first flew in 1984.

The Pampa III

Since 2009 FAdeA has concentrated on keeping that line alive. It revived the Pampa as the Pampa III, delivering six Block I aircraft by 2018, and flew the IA-100 trainer demonstrator in 2014. The company employed about 1,600 people in June 2014 and reports to the Ministry of Defence, which owns it outright. The Pampa III is a modernised version of the IA-63, which had first flown in 1984 and of which 32 were built in the original run. The IA-100 was a demonstrator for a new primary trainer.

Fabrieken

• Córdoba works · Córdoba, Argentina — Aircraft factory since 1927

Mensen

• Francisco de Arteaga · founder of the original institute — Founder of the 1927 Instituto Aerotécnico

Records en primeurs

• Pulqui I (1947), first jet fighter in Latin America, built at the Córdoba plant
• Pulqui II (1950), first swept-wing jet fighter designed in Latin America