With more than 80 years, the Paulistinha airplane is still a reference in the training of pilots

It is rare to find a Brazilian pilot who has never flown the Paulistinha. Instruction plane with more than 80 years of service, the small single-engine produced in Brazil with a high wing and two seats is still a reference in the training of aviators.

The first version of the Paulistinha, inspired by the American Taylor Cub training model, was built by the former Empresa Aeronáutica Ypiranga (EAY), one of the first aircraft manufacturers in Brazil. One of the company’s founders, incidentally, was Henrique Dumont Villares, nephew of pioneer Alberto Santos Dumont.

According to the book “Aeronautical Construction of Brazil – 100 Years of History”, by historian Roberto Pereira de Andrade, the first flight of the Paulistinha, originally named EAY-201, took place in September 1935, at Campo de Marte, in São Paulo. Paulo (SP). Although promising, acceptance of the plane was not immediate and EAY produced only five copies in eight years.

In 1943, EAY was acquired by Companhia Aeronáutica Paulista (CAP), another former Brazilian aircraft manufacturer, which perfected the single engine and relaunched it with the CAP-4 designation. It was also during this change that the plane became known as Paulistinha.

CAP-4’s fame was boosted by the “National Aviation Campaign”, a movement created in the 1940s by journalist Assis Chateaubriand, owner of the Diários Associados newspapers, and by Joaquim Pedro Salgado Filho, then minister of war in Brazil. The object of the action was to raise funds for the purchase of Brazilian-made instruction planes and then donate them to flying clubs in the country to serve in the training of pilots.

The campaign was a success and Paulistinha began to be manufactured at a frantic pace. In its heyday, CAP finished one plane a day, something very rare in aviation. According to data from the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), the CAP-4 totaled 777 units produced.

In the 1950s, the Paulistinha project again changed hands when it was sold to Indústria Aeronáutica Neiva, a company headquartered in Botucatu (SP) which was incorporated by Embraer in 2006. Under Neiva’s tutelage, the plane received more updates and passed to be called P-56. This version had 261 units sold until 1969, when production of the device ended.

Beetle with wings

What makes Paulistinha such a special plane is its simplicity. The fuselage of the device is a “skeleton” of steel tubes and the wings are made of wood. It is also a compact and extremely light aircraft, measuring just 6.65 meters in length by 10.1 m wingspan and a maximum takeoff weight of around 600 kg. The performance is modest, but it serves the instructional purpose perfectly: it reaches a top speed of 150 km/h and has a range of 500 km.

“I learned to fly in Paulistinha. It is a great aircraft for initial training, as the pilot has contact with the traditional essence of flight in it. It does not have any electronic aids for navigation and piloting. It’s a plane that totally depends on the pilot’s skill”, said Alexandre Montanha, private pilot and partner at Aeroclube de Marília (SP). “It also has an unbeatable low operating cost.”

“Those who learn to fly on Paulistinha are much better prepared when they migrate to more advanced aircraft. It’s like a Volkswagen Beetle. Anyone who learns to drive in the Volkswagen Beetle can calmly drive a Ferrari or any other car,” explained Montanha.

The Paulistinha do Aeroclube de Marília is one of the oldest in flight conditions. The model with registration number PP-GXD was manufactured by the Companhia Aeronáutica Paulista in 1947.

“This Paulistinha was a CAP-4 that was later converted to the standard P-56, by Neiva. He has been here in Marília for over 70 years and has never had any problems. We have much newer and more advanced instruction planes in the aeroclub’s fleet, such as models by Piper and Cessna, but the Paulistinha is the most used, shot,” said the pilot.

Brazilian classic

With 1,043 units produced by three different manufacturers, the Paulistinha ranks fourth among the best-selling Brazilian aircraft in history. It is second only to well-known Embraer aircraft, in this case the E-Jets E1 and E2 series (with 1,655 units produced until the third quarter of 2021), the Ipanema agricultural aircraft (more than 1,500 units) and the ERJ family (with 1,233 units). units produced, including versions for commercial, executive and military use).

In the Brazilian Aeronautical Registry (RAB) of the National Civil Aviation Agency (Anac) there are more than 300 copies of the Paulistinha, of which around 40 aircraft are in flight conditions. The oldest models in regular condition are from 1946 and the newest from 1969.

Even with the advent of more advanced instruction planes, the Paulistinha should continue to serve the purpose of training pilots in Brazil, who knows, for a few more decades, which will make it a century-old aircraft.