Embraer EMB 400 Urupema

The Embraer EMB 400 Urupema is a single-seat Brazilian glider built for high-performance competition flying. It began as the IPD 6505 Urupema, a design led by Guido Pessotti with engineers at the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica in São José dos Campos from 1964; the prototype did not fly until 1968, when it took part in the World Gliding Championships in Poland, and it competed again in 1970 in Marfa, Texas. In 1970 the Ministry of Aviation asked the newly founded Embraer to build ten slightly modified examples for the main Brazilian flying clubs, and these took the EMB 400 designation. The Urupema is a shoulder-wing monoplane with a conventional tail and a single wheel under the fuselage, built of wood, sandwich panels, foam plastics and plywood. Four examples were later modified by IPE as the Super Urupema, with a higher canopy that let the pilot sit lying down.