Embraer S.A. aerospace
EMB 314 Super Tucano
Manufactured 2003–present
First flight 2 June 1999

The Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano (English: Super Toucan), also named ALX or A-29, is a Brazilian turboprop light attack aircraft designed and built by Embraer as a development of the Embraer EMB 312 Tucano. The A-29 Super Tucano carries a wide variety of weapons, including precision-guided munitions, and was designed to be a low-cost system operated in low-threat environments. In addition to its manufacture in Brazil, Embraer has set up a production line in Portugal through the company OGMA and in the United States in conjunction with Sierra Nevada Corporation for the manufacture of A-29s to export customers.

During the mid-1980s, Embraer was working on the Short Tucano alongside a new version designated the EMB-312G1, carrying the same Garrett engine. The EMB-312G1 prototype flew for the first time in July 1986. However, the project was dropped because the Brazilian Air Force was not interested in it. Nonetheless, the lessons from recent combat use of the aircraft in Peru and Venezuela led Embraer to keep up the studies. Besides a trainer, it researched a helicopter attack version designated "helicopter killer" or EMB-312H. The study was stimulated by the unsuccessful bid for the US military Joint Primary Aircraft Training System program. A proof-of-concept prototype flew for the first time in September 1991. The aircraft features a 1.37 m (4.5 ft) fuselage extension with the addition of sections before and after of the cockpit to restore its center of gravity and stability, a strengthened airframe, cockpit pressurization, and stretched nose to house the more powerful PT6A-67R (1,424 shp or 1,062 kW) engine. Two new prototypes with the PT6A-68A (1,250 shp or 930 kW) engine were built in 1993. The second prototype flew for the first time in May 1993 and the third prototype flew in October 1993.

EMB-312H 1991 prototype on display at Memorial Aeroespacial Brasileiro in São José dos Campos. Wiki Link