As a professsional pilot in Switzerland, I got to fly the FFA AS202 Bravo sportsplane - and was personally introduced to the CEO-(owner) of the company, Dr. Claudio Caroni. This gentleman told me the true whole story about the P-16: he payed further development of ongoing prototypes with part of hiw own private fortune AND only the WINGS were used to develop the Learjet 23, not the fuseage.
Paul Guilden, e-mail, 22.12.2010 00:06
I was an apprentice engineer in 1961, working in Altenrhein with Dr. Hans Luzius Studer, designer of the P-16, who was hired by Bill Lear to design his business jet. The consensus was that the P-16 was an excellent-performing aircraft and that Studer had been given a raw deal by the Swiss government.
Any essay about the P-16 should mention Studer, as it was his design.
It would probably not be exact to say that the Learjet "evolved" from the P-16 other than to the normal extent that Studer, the designer of both, learned from his experiences.
Marco, e-mail, 31.08.2010 12:18
hello leo rudnicki, The testpilots reportet that the P-16 is a very stabil weaponplatform. they fired with the 2 inbuild guns, the inbuild rocketlauncher, unguidet rokets and ironbombs on the wing and 4 big napalmbombs (but for safty the had wather inside not napalm). Echeckout the videoFFA P-16 on youtoupe the firing is on the last part of it.
Dave, e-mail, 27.04.2010 02:26
I believe this AC was used in the groundwork development for the Lear-23.
leo rudnicki, e-mail, 28.04.2009 20:17
As a contemporary of Swift/Hunter/Lansen, and no sign of area rule, I wonder if they ever fired the guns in flight. Learjet didn't increase cabin headroom much.
leo rudnicki, e-mail, 28.04.2009 20:17
As a contemporary of Swift/Hunter/Lansen, and no sign of area rule, I wonder if they ever fired the guns in flight. Learjet didn't increase cabin headroom much.
Nikos J. Farsaris, e-mail, 27.12.2008 19:26
This was actually the basic design Learjet-23 (business jet) evolved from.