Short Tucano

what is it?

The Short Tucano is a two-seat turboprop basic trainer built by Short Brothers in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is a licence-built version of the Brazilian Embraer EMB 312 Tucano. On 14 February 1986, the prototype conducted its maiden flight in Brazil before being delivered to Shorts to be used as a pattern aircraft and modified to meet Royal Air Force (RAF) requirements and used for trials and demonstrations.

🔎How to recognise it: 1 turboprop · 11.3 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 507 km/htop speed
• range 1,665 kmwithout refuelling
• size 3,275 kgmax take-off weight
• built 160made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 40 years ago, in 1986.
• 🏎️Top speed is 3.9× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 11.3 m: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🌍Range of 1,665 km: 9× Amsterdam to Brussels.
• 🏔️Can fly 1.2× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

turboprop: A jet-style turbine turning a propeller: efficient on short hops.

spec sheet

first flight

1986-02-14

introduced

1989

retired

2019

status

still flying

number built

160

role

trainer aircraft

origin

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

makers

Short Brothers

engines

1× Garrett TPE331-12B / TPE331

crew

2

length

9.9 m

wingspan

11.3 m

height

3.4 m

max take-off weight

3,275 kg

top speed

507 km/h

cruise speed

407 km/h

range

1,665 km

ceiling

10,363 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.