Embraer EMB 202 Ipanema
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The Embraer EMB 202 Ipanema is an agricultural aircraft used for aerial application, particullary crop dusting. It's producted by Indústria Aeronáutica Neiva, a subsidiary of Embraer. The latest version of this aircraft is the first alcohol-powered airplane, which gives it many economical and ecological advantages over the gasoline version. The airplane is widely employed on Brazil, having market share of about 80%, and completed 1,000 deliveries on March 15, 2005. Besides airplanes, alcohol-conversion kits for gasoline-powered Ipanemas are also sold. It's common to think that the Ipanema name comes from the Rio de Janeiro beach, but it actually comes from a farm of the same name owned by the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture.
Development
On the 1960s, the development of a brazilian agriculture aircraft was motivated by the expansion of agricultural products' market, specially soybean and sugar cane. During this time, the Ipanema airplane was developed by engineers of the Aeronautics Technological Institute (ITA) on the Ipanema Farm, located on Sorocaba.The first version of the aircraft, the EMB-200, made its first flight on 1970 and was certified on December 1971. The airplane was equipped with a 260 HP propeller. Series production started on 1972 by Embraer. On September 1974, the EMB-201 was released, including many improvements such as a 300 HP propeller, new blades, new wings and increased capacity.
On 1982, the production of Ipanema was transferred to Indústria Aeronáutica Neiva, recently acquired by Embraer. On 1992, a new model, called EMB-202 or Ipanemão, was released. The new airplane had improvements on aerodynamics, a 40% greater capacity, and an optional, modern equipment for electrostatic aerial application.
On the following years, Neiva made significant improvements on the aircraft, such as adding winglets on the wing tips, adding an air conditioning system on the cabin, lowering the position of the wings, increasing the resistance and reducing the weight of the exhaust system and other changes.
Since ethanol is largely available on Brazil, being three to four times more unexpensive than aviation gasoline, many brazilian farmers have attempted to fuel gasoline-powered Ipanemas with alcohol, with variable degrees of success. The result of this was a development of an alcohol-powered Ipanema, which was certified by the Brazilian General Command for Aerospace Technology (CTA) on October 19, 2004. The new propeller of the Ipanema had also 20% lower maintenance and operational costs.
Variants
In parenthesis it's shown the certification date.- EMB-200 (December 1971) with a 260 HP Lycoming engine, Mc Cauley propeller and 550 kg capacity
- EMB-200A (December 1973) similar to EMB-200 with Hartzell propeller and an improved engine
- EMB-201 (September 1974) with 300 HP Lycoming engine, Hartzell propeller and 750 kg capacity, plus improved aerodynamics
- EMB-201A (April 1977) similar to EMB-201 with a new panel, controls and wings
- EMB-202 (May 1991) with 300 HP Lycoming engine, Hartzell propeller and 950 kg capacity
- EMB-202A (October 2004) with 320 HP Lycoming engine, using ethanol fuel and a propeller with better performance, lower maintenance and lower operational costs.
Specifications (EMB-202A)
Other
- Usable fuel capacity: 264 lt of ethanol fuel (70 US gal.)
- Fuel consumption: 98 lt/h (26 US gal.)
- Take-off distance: 354 m (1,161 ft)
- Landing distance: 170 m (558 ft)
Optional Equipment
- Fast refueling valve
- Swathmaster
- Electrostatic crop-dusting system
- Differential GPS
References
- Scientific America December 2005 issue, pg 60-61
- [Embraer Press Release 2005/03/15 NEIVA DELIVERS 1000TH IPANEMA CROP DUSTER]
- [Embraer Press Release 2004/10/19 ETHANOL-FUELED IPANEMA CERTIFIED BY THE CTA]
External links
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