A-29 Super Tucano

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tigercat2

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I saw recently that the USAF is purchasing Super Tucano light attack aircraft. The designation is the A-29. Is this part of the official Air Force Designation? The last A aircraft I see is the A-24, according to the NMUSAF. What is the A-25 - A-28?




Wes W.
 
My guess is that the designation comes from the next number in sequence after the prop-driven North American T-28 Trojan trainer. The Embraer EMB-312 Super Tucano was first proposed as a trainer for the JPATS competition by Northrop.
 
A-29 is the Força Aérea Brasileira designation for the single-seat Super Tucano. FAB's designation for the two-seat Super Tucano trainer is AT-29.
 
Apophenia said:
A-29 is the Força Aérea Brasileira designation for the single-seat Super Tucano. FAB's designation for the two-seat Super Tucano trainer is AT-29.
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Absolutely. The US doesn't make an effort to keep numbers in a logical sequence anymore... the X-35 was produced as the F-35 instead of the F-25, remember? And it's all the more true if the aircraft is acquired from abroad and already has a numeral designation of its own that nicely fits the US system, as is the case here. The Casa C.212 and Fokker 27 operated by the U.S. never acquired a standard designation either (being designated as "C-212" and "C-27", without a suffix letter).

Reversely, the T-50 designation was skipped, officially to avoid confusion with Lockheed's T-50 Golden Eagle for Asia... Go figure.
 
Thanks for the answers. I have noticed also that the Lockheed RQ-170 drone is another non-standard designation; it is a long ways from the RQ-9 Reaper. Any idea where this numerical designator came from?




Wes W
 
tigercat2 said:
Thanks for the answers. I have noticed also that the Lockheed RQ-170 drone is another non-standard designation; it is a long ways from the RQ-9 Reaper. Any idea where this numerical designator came from?
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It's something we've discussed in other topics before, but no-one can come-up with a clearcut answer... RQ-170, P-175, RQ-180 do seem to have something in common, but they were probably just Lockheed numbers used by the Air Force so that the types did not appear in the official "Q" list as missing numbers... (just my two cents).
 
Skyblazer said:
And it's all the more true if the aircraft is acquired from abroad and already has a numeral designation of its own that nicely fits the US system, as is the case here.
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Indeed. The actual entry in the DOD's MDS designation database is A-29B. So not only the out-of-sequence number 29 was used, but also the suffix "B" when there was never an "A" in US service.

And a curious side note on the issue: Said DOD MDS database also has an entry for "A-14A", with exactly the same data as A-29B. My (semi-educated) guess is that A-14A was orginally entered as the MDS for the aircraft, but that was later changed to A-29B. On the other hand, the "A-14A" entry could also be a simple mistake, which they forgot to delete ;) .
 
Andreas Parsch said:
And a curious side note on the issue: Said DOD MDS database also has an entry for "A-14A", with exactly the same data as A-29B. My (semi-educated) guess is that A-14A was orginally entered as the MDS for the aircraft, but that was later changed to A-29B. On the other hand, the "A-14A" entry could also be a simple mistake, which they forgot to delete ;) .
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Thanks a lot Andreas, your appearances are too scarce :'( but always very informative and highly appreciated!

This "A-14A" mention is interesting, because in all logic that was the next available slot after the A-12A Avenger II was cancelled (considering the number "13" was skipped, as is always the case). Of course, A-16 and A-18 were paper designations for the attack versions of the F-16 and F-18 (though neither F-18 nor A-18 are actually in use, replaced by the weird F/A-18...) but I'm building upon the hypothesis that they would go back to the original sequence instead of starting at A-19...
 
Skyblazer said:
Thanks a lot Andreas, your appearances are too scarce :'( but always very informative and highly appreciated!
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Thanks, but I'll stick to mostly lurking for the time being ;) . Anyway, Skyblazer, you're doing a fantastic job as the "designation guru" on this forum :D !

This "A-14A" mention is interesting, because in all logic that was the next available slot after the A-12A Avenger II was cancelled (considering the number "13" was skipped, as is always the case). Of course, A-16 and A-18 were paper designations for the attack versions of the F-16 and F-18 (though neither F-18 nor A-18 are actually in use, replaced by the weird F/A-18...) but I'm building upon the hypothesis that they would go back to the original sequence instead of starting at A-19...
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"A-18A" is also in that MDS database while A-16 is not. But yes, A-14 is (or was) the next regularly assignable number in the A-series.

In just in case someone asks about the mentioned "MDS database": It's not classified, but there is no public access to it. In May 2014, I FOIA-requested a full excerpt. and got a PDF:
http://www.designation-systems.net/usmilav/original-docs/Tab_1_A8_PDF_MDS_listing_20140509.pdf
There are very few "weird" entries (like A-14A), but mostly it's just a somewhat nerdy reference ;) .
 
Andreas Parsch said:
Thanks, but I'll stick to mostly lurking for the time being ;) . Anyway, Skyblazer, you're doing a fantastic job as the "designation guru" on this forum :D !

"A-18A" is also in that MDS database while A-16 is not. But yes, A-14 is (or was) the next regularly assignable number in the A-series.

In just in case someone asks about the mentioned "MDS database": It's not classified, but there is no public access to it. In May 2014, I FOIA-requested a full excerpt. and got a PDF:
http://www.designation-systems.net/usmilav/original-docs/Tab_1_A8_PDF_MDS_listing_20140509.pdf
There are very few "weird" entries (like A-14A), but mostly it's just a somewhat nerdy reference ;) .
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Manuf those “missing” number designations were assigned to projects that never got the off the drawing board, or were cancelled part way through development.
 

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