Questions

[Lootenant Pigeon]

It strikes me that some of the things Im asking are common knowledge or have been covered on the forum before so please excuse my ignorance in the meantime. Heres another one. The orange tanks on the Fouga wing tips are for fuel I assume ? Also are these tanks also now used on the PC9s sometimes ? Because I thought I saw a picture somewhere with tanks on the PC9s.

[heligaz]

Hi,

Yes the tip tanks on the fougas wings were for fuel.I have not seen any tip tanks on the Pc-9s before, maybe what you saw was the pod for weapons underneath the wing?

regards,
Heligaz.

[Lootenant Pigeon]

Nope, I have seen the grey rocket and gun pods, these were orange and right on the wing tips of an IAC PC9. Or maybe I dreamt it...

[Tony Kearns]

Nope, I have seen the grey rocket and gun pods, these were orange and right on the wing tips of an IAC PC9. Or maybe I dreamt it...

Have a look at the PC9 in the picture beneath your name, is that what you saw?
Tony K

[Fouga]

Have a look at the PC9 in the picture beneath your name, is that what you saw?
Tony K

Would i be correct in saying thats the universal colour to signify the Aircraft is a Trainer Aircraft? EG High viz?

[Lootenant Pigeon]

I take your point Tony but thats not it either. I know thats a high viz strip. I will try to find the photo.

[CK]

Didn't the Marchetti have fuel tanks at the tips of the wings too?

[Frank]

Yes, the Marchetti's did have wingtip tanks.

As for the PC-9's, I've never seen any PC-9 with a wingtip fuel tank or pods...

Switzerland


Slovenia


Croatia


Irish PC-9 fitted with gun and rocket pods


The PC-9 can be fitted with 6 hard points, 3 under each wing, which you can see fitted to the Slovenian PC-9 (pictured above), but the Air Corps aircraft only use 4 hard points. I don't know if the Air Corps PC-9's can be fitted with fuel tanks, I was told before but can remember now  , it all depends on whether or not the plumbing exists. Either way, the Air Corps only use 4 hard points but none of these are near the wing tips.


Regards,

Frank.

[Lootenant Pigeon]

Happy new year Frank, great photo there btw. I would love to know how the hard points work. I guess I should visit Baldonnel.

[Claudel Hopson]

The SF260's did had red/dayglo fuel tanks at their tips and one gun or rocket or rescue pod mounting on each wing off a NATO pylon. Both pylons had to carry the same weapons load.

The PC9's do indeed have three hard points to mount a gun pod, a rocket pod and an underwing fuel tank or smoke pod. We do not currently use the outer hardpoints because we dont have any fuel tanks  or smoke pods.

The outer wing fairings are painted red and house the navigation and strobe lights. There is no provision for mounting anything on the tips as the wings are not built that way, eg no plumbing, re-inforcing, extra wiring etc.

Hope this helps.

[CK]

Thanks for answering the Marchetti question.

[Frank]

one gun or rocket or rescue pod

Rescue pod... what was this exactly?

[Claudel Hopson]

We never had the rescue pods, but SIAI tried to develop a marine version of the SF260 for Coastal work and a pod was developed to be carried on a pylon to drop at sea for SAR, small life boat and PSP, that kind of thing. The idea was dropped very quickly by SIAI

[Lootenant Pigeon]

Well, thats the mystery cleared up, thanks Claudel.

[Frank]

Thanks Claudel.