Fábrica Argentina de Aviones







The Fábrica Argentina de Aviones SA (FAdeA), officially Fábrica Argentina de Aviones "Brigadier San Martín" S.A., is Argentina's main aircraft manufacturer. Founded on 10 October 1927 and located in Córdoba, for most of its existence it was known as Fábrica Militar de Aviones (FMA), until its privatisation in the 1990s. In 2010 the concession ended and is now wholly owned by the Argentine government.

History
Formed on October 10, 1927 and on July 18, 1928 ends the construction and testing begins on the track the first domestically produced aircraft: the license built Avro 504 Gosport training aircraft equipped with a 100 hp Gnome engine. It had a speed of 140 km/h with a flying endurance of 2 hours.

The factory is known for producing the first jet fighter aircraft in Latin America: the Pulqui I (1947) and the Pulqui II (1950) under the direction of engineers Emile Dewoitine (French) and Kurt Tank (German) respectively.

Privatization (1995)
FMA was closed in 1995 and was privatized by the government of Carlos Menem and from 1995 until March 2009 it belonged concession to LMAASA (Lockheed Martin Aircraft Argentina SA, a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation). Under the terms of the privatization agreement LMAASA would operate it for 25 years and could be renewed for two 10 year periods.

Nationalisation (2010)
During the government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner the factory was nationalised in August 2009 after paying ARS $67 million. The text of the expropriation law provides that "the State shall not return to get rid of a majority stake in the power or decision-making factory."

Its was renamed after Argentine Air Force Brigadier es:Juan Ignacio San Martín a military engineer who laid the foundations of the aeronautics industry at Córdoba  when he directed the Instituto Aerotécnico, the forerunner of the FMA, in the 1940s.

The United States Department of State announced that effective December 18, 2009, Lockheed Martin Aircraft Argentina would be renamed to Fábrica Argentina de Aviones "Brigadier San Martin" S.A. and divested to the Government of Argentina.

Aircraft design and production
The FMA has produced numerous innovative aircraft prototypes, but the state of the Argentine economy has usually prevented most of them from entering large-scale production. Nevertheless the FMA has managed to put several aircraft types of more conventional designs into full productions. It also engaged in production of licensed aircraft from other countries.

The prefixes used for the aircraft locally developed (and produced) are:
 * Ae, for "Dirección General de Aerotécnica", on the first period (1927–1936);
 * F.M.A., for "Fábrica Militar de Aviones", on the second period (1938–1943);
 * I.Ae., for "Instituto Aerotécnico", on the third period (1943–1952);
 * IA, meaning not specified, on the fourth (current) period (1952 to present).