The A-5 Fantan: The Low Priced Ground Attack Aircraft

The Nanchange A-5, code named “Fantan” by NATO, gave the Peoples Republic of China an effective, low cost supersonic strike aircraft. A step that helped China demonstrate to the world their ability to alter and improve an existing aircraft platform. The Fantan is based on the 1950’s MiG-19 airframe. During the late 1950s, the Chinese military leaders identified the need to field a supersonic strike aircraft capable of supporting the Chinese ground forces. After many design studies, the Chinese decided to alter an existing airframe and inject it with the most advanced avionic package available to them. Design work commenced on the summer of 1960 and on June 4th, 1965 it took to the air in its maiden flight. Developed by the Chinese without the traditional help of the Soviet Union, the A-5 evolved as an inexpensive alternative to Third World countries, enableling the aircraft to become one of the few export success stories of Chinese design in those early days of the Cold War.

The original Chinese design called for the new aircraft to carry more free-fall bombs and missile platforms than its cousin, the MiG-19. The A-5 was also designed to operate at much further distances. With the added weight of ordinance and extra fuel tanks, the A-5 was not as agile to maneuver as its cousin. Over one thousand units of the Fantan were produced. The three main export countries for the A-5 were Pakistan, which acquired a fleet of fifty-two units at a price tag of just under 2.6 million dollars per aircraft, about a quarter of the cost of an F-16A Falcon. Bangladesh bought twenty examples and North Korea acquired around forty units. At one time during the 1970s, the Fantan equipped most of the squadrons of the Chinese Air Force. The aircraft was so successful bombing at low altitudes during its trial test phase that the Chinese modified some units to carry free fall nuclear ordinances. One Fantan actually dropped a nuclear bomb during a firing test in 1970. The Fantans first combat action occurred during a minor border conflict with Vietnam in the spring of 1979. Since then, the aircraft had been upgraded several times.

The current version of the A-5 is equipped with an advanced Italian-built avionics package. The AMX system incorporated a state-of-the-art laser range finder connected to an Alenia heads-up display and internal navigation computer, filtering information to the cockpit. The simplicity of the aircrafts design and the need to mass produce the type, forced Chinese engineers to forfeit several electronic platforms such as a full radar system. As of today, no A-5 is fitted with a modern radar array, although there’s space available for it inside the aircraft’s nose cone. The aircrafts fuselage did not resemble a MiG-19. The only clear sign of its ancestor is the Fantan’s swept tail section and an all-moving slab tail plane. The wing structure is fitted with two types of wing pylons. The inboard pylon can accommodate fuel tanks with capacity for 201g of aviation fuel. The outboard pylons can also be used to accommodate fuel tanks, but most units use them to carry free fall bombs. Two external pylons are used to carry air-to-air missiles. The current field version of the A-5 used the MATRA Magic air-to-air missile system. The defensive missile system could be augmented by a pair of 23mm cannons, each capable of holding one hundred rounds of ammunitions, mounted in two intermediaries under wings pylons.

SPECIFICATIONS



Single seated ground attack aircraft

Length 51′-4″

Height 14′-2″

Span 31′-9″

Total Wing Area 301sq ft

Maximum Weight 26,081lb

Operational Range 1,243 miles

Service Ceiling 52,000′

The A-5 was powered by two Liming (LM) Wopen-6a turbojet engines, each capable of generating 6,617lb of thrust dry and 8,272lb with afterburners. Although the whole Fantan concept is based on economics, the engines used in the aircraft were anything but. They required a major overhaul very one hundred flight hours, making the power plant the only un-economical aspect of the Fantan. Although the aircraft’s engines are capable of reaching speeds of 739mph, the fatigue of the airframe and the relative poorly designed engines, the Fantan can only muster operational speeds of around five hundreds miles per hour. Another performance factor affected by the engine design is the operational range, which is much smaller than its western counterparts.

Today, China still operates the largest fleet of Fantans in the world. But it’s Pakistan that operates the most advanced A-5 fleet today. Its Fantans were upgraded in the early 1990s with an improved avionics system and even a British Martin-Baker ejection seat was installed. The Pakistani use a different version of the aircraft, the Q-5, specially modify to carry a 20Kt nuclear weapon.

An article by Raul Colon: rcolonfrias@yahoo.com

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