Aermacchi MB-326
The Impala
“Italy's jet trainer that half the southern hemisphere learned to fly on.”
Aermacchi · military
Aermacchi built the MB-326 as a straight-wing jet trainer with a single Rolls-Royce Viper, and it turned out so forgiving and so cheap to run that air forces bought it as a light attack jet too. South Africa built it under licence as the Impala, Brazil as the Xavante, and Australia flew it for 30 years. A handful now fly in private hands, the most affordable way into a real military jet.
The MB-326 was Embraer's first jet: Brazil built it under licence as the Xavante from 1971, and the Brazilian Air Force flew it until 2010.
Straight wings with tip tanks on both ends, a tandem canopy, and a single round intake each side of the nose. Think T-33 proportions but smaller and tidier.
One might be overhead right now.
Bogey turns the The Impala from a dot in the sky into a card in your logbook.
