I. Ae. 38 Flying Wing Transport

A message came to me near the end of a working day in 1950. It informed me that an aircraft was on the way to take me to some unspecified destination. I asked a coworker to notify my wife, and soon boarded a DC 3, which departed immediately. I was the only passenger. Not until we were airborne was I informed of our destination: Santa Rosa, a private airstrip belonging to General Ojeda of the Air Ministry. The General escorted me to his home, and explained that he wanted to build a city in the middle of the orange groves there. "The oranges here are rotting on the ground, while Buenos Aires imports oranges from other countries", he said. "The problem: Transportation! No roads that can accommodate heavy trucks, and no railroad! Would it be possible to build a cargo glider with ten tons of cargo capacity, that could be snatched up by a low flying 'Lancaster' bomber, and towed the 1000 km to Buenos Aires?" I suggested that a powered flying wing with short field takeoff and landing capabilities might be a better solution. After some discussion he agreed, and the I. Ae. 38 was born.

General Ojeda was removed from his post soon after the work started, but his successor did allow us to continue.

The aircraft was basically a double size Ho II. The fuselage pod had double cargo doors in the rear, that could be partially opened in flight, to allow parachute drops. 30 cubic meters of cargo space were available. A vertical fin was installed on top of each wing at Y = 0.8, with a rudder that only moved in an outboard direction. Only a servo tab moved the rudder, since we had found it impossible to have hydraulic servo controls manufactured.

A fixed five wheel landing gear was attached to the pod through a system of shock absorbers, arranged and indexed to show the c/g location after cargo loading was completed. We planned to use four 750 HP "Indio" engines with pusher propellers. These were domestic engines, that suffered from continuing development troubles, and consequently, they were never delivered. Imported engines were out of the question for "prestige" reasons. We finally installed 320 HP "El Gaucho" engines instead, with severe performance penalties.

In 1960, ten years after its conception, the I. Ae. 38 finally flew. It was demonstrated to a group of dignitaries on its first flight by test pilot Capt. Ballado.

Afterwards, the aircraft was simply scrapped, and my employment with the Institute terminated.

Specifications

Schematic of the I. Ae. 38

The jig used for the leading edge D-tube. Note the built-in washout

The I. Ae. 38 rollout

Taxi tests, eight years after construction started

Take off!

Low level flight