Rhein-Flugzeugbau Fantrainer – Stunning Plane that No One Really Trusts
The RFB Fantrainer is a twin-seat trainer aircraft; its most distinctive feature is its propulsion system, a mid-mounted ducted fan. This reportedly delivers performance akin to aircraft harnessing conventional jet propulsion, but at significantly reduced costs.
During the 1960s, advanced military trainers evolved alongside complex fighter aircraft, demanding better pilot preparation. Amid the rush, a small German company named Rhein Flugzeugbau, RFB, embarked on an unconventional idea; they set out to build a jet that wasn’t a jet at all.
The Fan Trainer was a military trainer pretending to be a fighter jet by replacing the actual engine with a ducted fan behind the cockpit – an approach that offered jet-like agility at a reduced operating cost. So RFB created a fighter jet like no other, one that has fascinated aviation enthusiasts for decades and is looking to make a comeback…
The Rhein-Flugzeugbau Fantrainer is an aircraft designed and built by the aircraft manufacturer Rhein-Flugzeugbau for the initial and ongoing training of jet pilots. In connection with the planned resumption of production, initiated by Fanjet Aviation GmbH, the Fantrainer 600 is now marketed under the name “Fanjet 600”.
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As many air forces realized in the early 1970s that advanced pilot training would become significantly more expensive due to new, technologically advanced systems, they sought an alternative that would combine the flight characteristics of a jet aircraft with the low costs of a propeller aircraft.
The Mönchengladbach-based aircraft manufacturer Rhein-Flugzeugbau had already accumulated extensive experience in the application of ducted fan propulsion systems by the late 1960s. Using the RFB Sirius ducted fan test aircraft, Hanno Fischer was able to demonstrate the jet-like handling characteristics of an aircraft powered by a ducted fan mounted behind the cockpit in the fuselage as early as 1968.
At the 1970 ILA Berlin Air Show, Rhein-Flugzeugbau presented project sketches of a civilian touring aircraft and a military trainer with ducted fan propulsion to the public for the first time. This initial Fantrainer design, like the Sirius I, which was being tested at the time, still featured a low-mounted horizontal stabilizer.
The civilian and military aircraft differed only in the cockpit section located in front of the ducted fan, which was designed to be interchangeable to allow for rapid adaptation of this component to the respective target aircraft type in the future.
Since the German Air Force showed no interest in the development in 1970, Rhein-Flugzeugbau, after the completion of the Sirius test program, began developing the civilian version, designated Rhein-Flugzeugbau Fanliner , in 1972 with the support of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia .
Only after its successful maiden flight in 1973 did the German Air Force show interest in testing the military version as a successor to the Piaggio P.149 . In March 1975, Rhein-Flugzeugbau received an order from the German Federal Ministry of Defence to build two prototypes of the military Fantrainer.
Top Photo: RFB-400
Sources: YouTube; Wikipedia
