The Hispano HA-200 Saeta (English: Arrow) was a twin-seat jet advanced trainer designed and produced by Spanish aircraft manufacturer Hispano Aviación. It has the distinction of being the first Spanish aircraft to harness jet propulsion.
The German aircraft designer Willy Messerschmitt can be largely credited for his role in designing the HA-200, which reused a substantial portion of the earlier piston-powered HA-100 Triana. On 12 August 1955, the first prototype conducted its maiden flight. It was not until 1962 that the first production aircraft performed its first flight. That same year, deliveries of the trainer aircraft commenced to the Spanish Air Force. It would be used in this capacity by the service for multiple decades.
The HA-200 was later further developed into the Hispano Aviación Ha-220 “Super Saeta”, which functioned as a dedicated ground attack platform, armed with rockets, bombs, and other munitions. The HA-220 served in the Spanish Air Force throughout the 1970s, seeing action during the Polisario uprisings against insurgents.
General characteristics
- Crew: 2
- Length: 8.92 m (29 ft 3 in)
- Wingspan: 11.02 m (36 ft 2 in) (over tip tanks)
- Height: 3.26 m (10 ft 8 in)
- Wing area: 17.40 m2 (187.3 sq ft)
- Empty weight: 1,990 kg (4,387 lb)
- Max takeoff weight: 3,450 kg (7,606 lb)
- Fuel capacity: 1,389 L (367 US gal; 306 imp gal) (including tip tanks)
- Powerplant: 2 × Turbomeca Marboré VI turbojets, 4.71 kN (1,058 lbf) thrust each
Performance
- Maximum speed: 700 km/h (430 mph, 380 kn) at 8,000 m (26,000 ft)
- Cruise speed: 600 km/h (370 mph, 320 kn) at 8,000 m (26,000 ft)
- Stall speed: 130 km/h (81 mph, 70 kn) (flaps down)
- Never exceed speed: 790 km/h (490 mph, 430 kn) (max dive speed)
- Range: 1,400 km (870 mi, 760 nmi)
- Service ceiling: 13,000 m (43,000 ft)
- Rate of climb: 16.99 m/s (3,345 ft/min)
Hispano Aviación was a Hispano-Suiza aircraft factory in Andalusia, southern Spain which became a separate enterprise when taken over by the Francisco Franco led “Nationalist” forces in 1939, during the Spanish Civil War.
Located in Tablada, in the Triana district of Seville, the Hispano factory produced several aircraft designs, including the HA-1109 also named Me-109J, Spanish licence built version of the famous Messerschmitt Bf-109G equipped with a 1,300 hp Hispano-Suiza 12Z engine, HA-1112 (HA-1109 re-engined with Rolls-Royce Merlin), Hispano HA-100 Triana; the Hispano HA-200 Saeta jet trainer and light attack aircraft designed by Professor Willy Messerschmitt.
Hispano Aviación was taken over by Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA) in 1972, which is now part of Airbus.
