AJI T610 'Cali' Super Pinto - The Philippines' attempt at a Domestic Jet Trainer

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Introducing

American Jet Industries
T610 ‘Cali’ Super Pinto
Philippine Aircraft Development Corporation’s Domestic COIN Jet Trainer

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PADC’s T610 ‘Cali’ Super Pinto prototype during flight tests for the Philippine Air Force’s Self Reliance Development Wing

OVERVIEW

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Temco TT-1 Pinto

The T-610 Super Pinto originated in 1968 as a modified version of the Navy’s Temco TT-1 Pinto two-seat jet trainer. This conversion replaced the original Continental J69 (Turbomeca Marbore) engine with a more powerful General Electric CJ610 (a civilian version of the military J85) and extended the fuselage by 2 meters. The redesign resulted in an aircraft that performed exceptionally well, boasting three times the power of the original model while adding only 20 pounds to its weight.


AJI T-610 Super Pinto during Pavecoin trials

In the early 1970s, AJI proposed the Super Pinto as a light-strike/counter-insurgency (COIN) aircraft and to participate with the USAF’s Pavecoin program however since Allen Paulson, AJI’s CEO, knew that AJI didnt have the capacity to build the aircraft - he partnered with Aeronca to co-produce it and have them modify the Super Pinto to become an attack aircraft with supplementary wingtip fuel tanks. Powered by a CJ610-4 turbojet engine and fitted with six underwing hardpoints for external armaments, the aircraft, however, failed to secure contracts from the USAF (when the Pavecoin program was abruptly halted) or Turkey.


AJI T610 ‘Cali’ Super Pinto 2nd Prototype that was locally assembled in the Philippine Air Force Museum

Subsequently, AJI decided to sell the project. In 1976, the Philippine government acquired the Super Pinto program for $1.25 million through the Philippine Air Force’s Self-Reliance Development Wing. The deal included work drawings, patents, design details, flight test data, manufacturing process sheets, a US-built prototype (which became the first Philippine T-610, later renamed the “Calí” or “eagle”), and an additional fuselage. The agreement also granted the Philippines exclusive global rights to market both military and commercial variants of the aircraft.

However, the program was mired by problems especially after the first prototype was lost in an accident in its evaluation flight (which caused the abandonment of the program when it killed a high ranking PAF officer). This was compounded with the fact that economic mismanagement of the then dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. almost lead to a near financial collapse that forced the succeeding government to abandon the program. In the mid-1980s, there were plans to revive the project to replace a bunch of PAF assets from the F-86 Sabres, Lockheed T-33s, and a bunch more. The engine commonality with the PAF’s own Northrop F-5A/Bs were found to be especially promising but this never really took off.

To this day, Manila still technically hold the licensing rights of the Super Pinto but this has been challenged way back in 1988 when Avstar Inc., in cooperation with Shenyang Aircraft Corp. planned to revive the Super Pinto with Avstar T-100 Super Mustang but this time powered by a GE J85 Turbojet or Williams FJ44 with the argument that Manila invalidated its own licensing rights for not having produced any new aircraft for the past decade. This however did also not pan out and the Super Mustang never was produced.

SPECIFICATIONS

General characteristics

  • Crew: Two (pilot and instructor)
  • Length: 9.57 m (31 ft 5 in)
  • Wingspan: 9.09 m (29 ft 10 in) with tip tanks; (10.31 m (33 ft 9 in) without tip tanks)
  • Height: 3.48 m (11 ft 5 in)
  • Wing area: 13.94 m² (150.0 sq ft)
  • Empty weight: 1,542 kg (3,400 lb)
  • Max. takeoff weight: 3,628 kg (7,998 lb)
  • Powerplant: 1 × General Electric CJ610-4 non-afterburning turbojet, 12.7 kN (2,850 lbf)
  • Fuel capacity: 1,048 l (277 US gal; 231 imp gal) with tip tanks

Performance

  • Never exceed speed: 760 km/h (472 mph; 410 kn) at 4,570 m (14,990 ft)
  • Maximum speed: 843 km/h (524 mph; 455 kn) at 7,620 m (25,000 ft) and 2,041 kg (4,500 lb) AUW
  • Stall speed: 121 km/h (75 mph; 65 kn) flaps down
  • Range: 1,570 km (976 mi; 848 nmi)internal fuel
  • Ferry range: 2,062 km(1,281 mi; 1,113 nmi)
  • Endurance: 5.5 hours
  • Service ceiling: 15,240 m (50,000 ft)
  • Rate of climb: 47 m/s (9,300 ft/min)

Armament

  • Hardpoints: 6 underwing hardpoints with a capacity of up to 3,500 kg (7,700 lb) of stores and provisions to carry combinations of:
    • 7.62 mm or 12.7 mm caliber MG gunpods
    • LAU-61/LAU-68/LAU-131 unguided rocket pods
    • 6x 250 lbs. Mk. 81 bombs
    • 4x 500 lbs. Mk. 82 bombs
    • 2x 1000 lbs. Mk. 83 bombs

IN-GAME

Fairly fast and agile, its very similar in capability with the BAE Strikemaster and should fulfill the same role and niche. If this gets added to Japan as part of a larger ASEAN subtree, this would be an excellent sidegrade to the Thai OA-37B Dragonfly and be a fantastic premium option.

Since the license was sold to the Philippines, this variant is effectively entirely Filipino if it was ever produced (aside from the prototype).

MORE PHOTOS


The 2nd prototype ‘Cali’ Super Pinto in the Philippine Air Museum


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AJI T-610 Super Pinto for Pavecoin evaluation

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T-610 Super Pinto Cockpit

SOURCES

https://bg-hisour-com.translate.goog/data/aji_t-610_super_pinto/?_x_tr_sl=bg&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

https://www.airwar.ru/enc/attack/t610.html

http://www.warbirdalley.com/pinto.htm

EDIT:

  • Added a little bit more of info and fixed small grammatical errors
4 Likes

Light attack aircraft spotted. Positive vote given. Like given. Happiness increased by +1.

2 Likes

There are actually a few Super Pintos that still remain in the US before it was bought by the Philippine Government (especially as only one out of the total 15 Super Pintos built was sent to the Philippines) so we do have some more pictures of it in US Navy livery (the US Navy used the previous TT-1 Pinto in small numbers as trainers).

Here are more pics I found:

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2 Likes

This is the cutest light attack aircraft I’ve ever seen. I hope it gets added.

3 Likes

Ill be updating the armament options, I somehow missed it that it only listed 7.62 mg gun pods lol. Ill also be adding more info on the development process of this in the article itself updating it for more accurate info.

In the meantime here are more photos (one is very high def) of the Super Pinto:

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post-7766-1260292852

Edit:

It seems like Ezell Aviation managed to restore a Super Pinto (Serial No. N4229) in its original Navy blue colors, usually they are TT-1 Pintos with the weaker engine and no hardpoints. Why do I always find the cool stuff AFTER Im done with posting the suggestion? Lol!





Note what seems to be a Mk.8 Reflector Sight, very classy

2 Likes

+1 looks quite cool

1 Like

I just find this funny lol

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Apparently taken from ep 6 of the TV series six million dollar man. The Super Pinto here named XJ-7 is being expertly flown by Farrah Fawcett battling a Zero hologram produced by ‘bad’ people.

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https://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/547101-what-cockpit-167.html

1 Like