Background The origins of the
HA-200 Saeta are heavily intertwined with the
German aircraft designer
Willy Messerschmitt, who was responsible for producing a significant proportion of its design. Following the end of the
Second World War, Messerschmitt emigrated from Germany and begun offering his services to various other nations, including
South Africa. During 1951, he had settled in
Francoist Spain and shortly thereafter begun to design aircraft for the government in conjunction with local aircraft manufacturer
Hispano Aviación. During the early 1950s, Messerschmitt worked on the
HA-100 Triana, a
piston-powered prototype trainer aircraft; while never attaining production, this design would subsequently serve as the basis for the HA-200. In fact, the two aircraft directly shared many design features, including the wing, tail unit, and
tricycle undercarriage; original elements were largely confined to the area forward of the cockpit. Throughout the 1950s, progress on the HA-200 programme was supervised by Messerschmitt from Hispano's office in
Seville. It would be Spain's first indigenously-developed aircraft to be powered by the
turbojet engine. On 12 August 1955, the first prototype conducted its
maiden flight, flown by Major Fernando de Juan Valiente, the company's chief test pilot. Valiente later praised the prototype's handling qualities, stating them to be light and responsive, including "viceless and straightforward"
stall characteristics. Early on, the
French Turbomeca Marboré turbojet engine had been selected to power the type; Spain had successfully negotiated a
license to locally produce this engine. Development was protracted, the first production aircraft, which was designated by the manufacturer as
HA-200A, first flew during October
1962. Shortly thereafter, the initial version of the aircraft were delivered to the
Spanish Air Force; in service, it was operated under the service designation
E.14.
Further development The initial trainer model of the aircraft was shortly followed on by a single-seat version, designated as the
HA-220, which was designed to perform ground attack missions. On 25 April 1970, this new model made its first flight. During the early 1970s, the ground attack-orientated HA-220 entered into service with the Spanish Air Force, which designated the type as
C.10. It remained in service for barely a decade, all of the C.10s being withdrawn from Spanish service by the end of 1981. During the late 1950s, the emerging HA-200 had drawn the attention of
Egyptian
President Gamal Abdel Nasser; around this time, Nasser was passionate on the subject of developing Egyptian industrial and military capabilities alike, which included the domestic production of modern jet aircraft. Negotiations between Spain and Egypt were facilitated by Messerschmitt, who acted as a key go-between for the two parties. According to aerospace periodical
Flight International, a total of 65 HA-200s were reportedly constructed at Helwan between 1960 and 1969. In Egyptian Air Force service, the type was commonly referred to as the
Helwan HA-200B Al-Kahira. According to Flight International, during the early 1960s, Egypt and Spain were collaborating on the development of a six-seater
business jet directly derived from the HA-200. Around this time, the two nations jointly worked on various aviation projects, including the
Helwan HA-300, a cancelled
supersonic fighter aircraft. ==Design==