One of the (at the time) lightest twin-engined aircraft in the world made its first flight on this day in 2007, the Italian built Tecnam 2006T.
This four-seat aircraft is powered by two liquid-cooled ROatx engines that features a fully retractable landing gear, a high cantilever wing with integral fuel tanks and is certified for use of 92 octane unleaded automotive fuel as well as 100LL AvGas.
The tri-cycle landing consists of a nose landing gear that retracts in the nose cone and two main gears of trailing link design that retracts in stubs that extend out of the lower fuselage structure.
The fuselage itself is rectangular, whit a larger height than the width of the cabin, an access door on each side of the cabin provides access to the aircraft. For the two forward seats, an escape hatch is provided in the roof of the cabin.
The engines are both air-cooled and liquid-cooled, the cylinder heads are liquid-cooled while the cylinders have cooling vanes that use the airflow through the engine cowling. A radiator in the nacelle provides the cooling medium for the cylinder head cooling system.
The geared engines require a starter for both ground and air start, a windmilling start is not possible as the geared propellor will not be turned by airflow due to mechanical resistance. This resulted in an extra certification requirement from the FAA, a backup battery was required for air starts of the engines.
Many piston-engined aircraft have three control levers in the flight deck for engine and propeller control, throttle, propeller rpm and mixture. Not on the Tecnam 2006T, mixture control is automatic so there is no mixture control. The red (mixture) lever is replaced by small yellow levers, controlling carburettor heat. Another difference with other aircraft in its class is that there are no control cables in the Tecnam 2006T, All flight controls are operated by push/pull rods.
After completing the test program, which started with the first flight on this day in 2007, EASA certified the aircraft on the 5th of June 2009 in the CS-23 category, normal, utility, aerobatic and commuter airplane category. The FAA also certified the aircraft under FAR23.
The aircraft is available in 4 variants
P2006T The civilian version
P2006T MRI A maritime patrol variant
P2006T MMA A multi-mission version with specialised electronic mission equipment
T2006A Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force) designation for the aircraft used by the 70° Stormo as multi-engine training aircraft since July 2016.
Specifications for the Tecnam 2006T; General characteristics
Crew: 1 (pilot)
Capacity: 3 passengers or 618 pounds (280 kg) payload with full fuel
Length: 8.69 m (28 ft 6 in)
Wingspan: 11.40 m (37 ft 5 in)
Height: 2.84 m (9 ft 4 in)
Wing area: 14.75 m2 (158.8 sq ft)
Aspect ratio: 8.80
Empty weight: 760 kg (1,675 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 1,230 kg (2,712 lb)
Fuel capacity: 200 litres (44 imp gal; 53 US gal)
Powerplant: 2 × Rotax 912S3 horizontally opposed four-cylinder geared piston engines, 75 kW (100 hp) each
Propellers: 2-bladed MT-Propeller MTV-21, 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) diameter constant-speed, fully feathering
Performance
Maximum speed: 287 km/h (178 mph, 155 kn)
Cruise speed: 250 km/h (155 mph, 135 kn)
Stall speed: 87 km/h (54 mph, 47 kn)
Never exceed speed: 309 km/h (192 mph, 167 kn)
Minimum control speed: 115 km/h (71 mph, 62 kn)
Range: 1,374 km (853 mi, 742 nmi)
Endurance: 4.25 hours
Service ceiling: 4,300 m (14,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 6.4 m/s (1,260 ft/min) 250 ft/min (single engine)
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