ALR Piranha

The ALR Piranha was a late 1970s project study of a lightweight multi-role combat aircraft with duck wings of the Swiss Working Group for Aerospace (ALR), which acted as a maintenance and entertainment organization of the Swiss Air Force. The management of the project was Georges Bridel, an engineer at ETH Zurich.

History
After the Swiss government had canceled the FFA N-20 and the order of 100 FFA P-16, took the Swiss aviation industry and the ETH Zurich a last attempt for their own Swiss fighter aircraft. There should be a small fighter plane - in the same class as the F-5E, which the Swiss Air Force later ordered.

The project study is set against the background that the equipment of air forces with modern aircraft in the 1960s and 1970s, it was becoming increasingly difficult for small states. The increase in the cost of the flight material and weapons shrank the fleet sizes and their performance in combat are questionable. In contrast to a small number of high-performance aircraft, saw a larger fleet of light aircraft in a position to defensive struggle with the army a long time to run. It should also be substantially homogeneous material stock achieved in that a pattern can be built in as many variants. This meant that the aircraft will be used for the same basic equipment for air and ground attack, reconnaissance, electronic warfare, and operational training. should be developed in a small fighter plane, with respect to the F-5E significantly reduced size (20% smaller surface).

The ALR would have been equipped with avionics, radar, armament and engines from abroad. A 30 mm Gatling gun on the underside of the fuselage, the nose wheel would have been slightly offset. The main landing gear was designed in the style of an F-16. In front of the cockpit would be placed a IR seeker sensor. Air brakes are applied in the single engine version to the sides of the rear hull. In the twin-engine version of the two air brake flaps are placed on the upper fuselage near the vertical tail.

A striking design feature is the high delta wing with internal fuel tanks and missile carriers at the wing tip for guided weapons in the weight class of the AIM-9 and two wing pylons, in which the inner one is capable of taking a double weapon carrier. This can be heavy air-to-air or air-to-ground missiles, fuel tanks or air sample collection container or for the 2-seater version of the Vista5 jammer system from Ericsson. The fuselage pylon between the main landing gear can have a external fuel tanks or a towed target container for an air-to-air and ground-to-air target practice.

The ALR should be in a single engine version, powered by RB199, EJ200 or M88 or offered a twin-engine version (with two Larzac). Only the rear part of the twin engine to the single engined version would be different in the size, the arrangement of the parachute container, and the air brakes.

The Swiss government was not interested in the project. There have been drawings, wind tunnel testing and flight testing in Emmen with remote-controlled model airplanes. Also, a real-size mock cockpit was created. A new concept for aircraft bunker with a rotating floordisc in the bottom for a simple handling of the aircraft in the aircraft bunker was designed. But not a prototype and none of these aircraft bunker was built.

Variants

 * Piranha 1: Subsonic variant
 * Piranha 2C: Transonic ground attack version, powered by a single Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Adour Mk 811 (RT172-58) engine with 24.6 - 37.4 kN thrust (with or without afterburner), no radar and small 13.5 sqm wings.
 * Piranha 2D (1): Version for attack and air superiority fighter, a 29.2 - 44.9 kN thrust Adour (RT172-63), full avionics and small 13.5 sqm wings.
 * Piranha 2D (2): Like as (1) but with a large wing 16 sqm.
 * Piranha 4: 2x SNECMA Turbomeca Larzac M-74/05 turbofan engines (15% more thrust at supersonic speed than RT172-63), shorter and wider fuselage.
 * Piranha 5: 2x 18.4 - 30.2 kN Garrett/TFE 1042-7 turbofan engines.
 * Piranha 6: 1x 40.5 - 73 kN Turbo-Union RB.199 Mk.104 turbofan engine.

Specifications
1.Ferranti FIN 1020nav / attack, Type 105D Laser Distance Meters, HUD Smith, Thomson-CSF Agave radar. 2.INS FINAS FerrantiFINAS INS 2000 Ferranti 4510 HUD, Type 105D Laser Distance Meters, Emerson APG-69, APG-67 or General Electric Blue Vixen radar.
 * Armament: 1 x Cannon (KCA 30mm, 27mm Mauser, General Electric GE-430 30mm) Piranha 6/4 Piranha / Piranha 2D (2) / Piranha 2D (1)
 * Length: 11.57 m / 10.50 m / 10.7 m / 10.7 m
 * Wingspan: 7.62m / 6.49m / 6.49m / 6m
 * Height: 4.25 m / 4.12 m
 * Wing area: 22 m² / 16 m² / 16 m² / 13.5 sq m
 * Empty weight: 4340 kg / 3800kg
 * Max Fuel: 2160 kg +
 * External memory max: 3.500 kg
 * Normal TOW: 7040 kg / 5900kg
 * Max TOW: 10.000 kg
 * Maximum speed: Mach 1.8 / Mach 1.6
 * Max rate of climb: 18,000 m / minute /
 * Ceiling: 16,800 m
 * Off distance: 300m / 450m
 * Combat radius, lo-lo-lo, 2000 kg weapons load, 20 min cruise, 5 min Combat Mission: 400km 300km
 * avionics:

Literature

 * Janes all the world's aircraft supplement (18), in Flugrevue, Juni 1980, S. 55 f.
 * Jane's all the world's aircraft, Verlag McGraw-Hill, 1985, S. 205
 * Leichtkampfflugzeug Piranha. In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung: Wochenschrift für Architektur, Ingenieurwesen, Maschinentechnik, Band 96, 1978, S. 636
 * P-16 et autres jets suisses. Le Temps, 1. Dezember 2011