[5] Embodying many of the design elements of the wartime Focke-Wulf Ta 183, an unrealized fighter project,[6] the FMA envisioned the IAe 33 Pulqui II as a successor to the postwar Gloster Meteor F4 in service with the Fuerza Aérea Argentina.

Despite one of the prototypes being successfully tested in combat during the 1955 Revolución Libertadora, the political, economic and technical challenges faced by the project meant that the IAe 33 was unable to reach its full potential, and the Argentine government ultimately chose to purchase F-86 Sabres from the United States in lieu of continuing development of the indigenous fighter to production status.

[7] In the late 1940s, Argentina benefited from the recruitment of prominent German aerospace scientists and engineers, fleeing Europe following the defeat of the Nazis and seeking sanctuary in Latin America.

The first group of these refugees had also included French designer Émile Dewoitine, punished as a collaborator in his homeland,[9] who headed the IAe 27 Pulqui I experimental fighter program with Argentine engineers Juan Ignacio San Martín, Enrique Cardeilhac, Norberto L. Morchio, Humberto Ricciardi, sixteen draftsmen and forty workers.

However, the experience gained drove the progress of the national aeronautical industry, which became the eighth in the world to venture into this type of technology and paved the way for more ambitious projects such as the IA-33 Pulqui II.

[1] The Aerotechnical Institute (Spanish: Instituto Aerotécnico), under the leadership of Morchio, persevered with its efforts to build a successful indigenous jet fighter and, at first, attempted to modify the earlier aircraft.

When it became apparent that the Pulqui I had little potential for further development, the Aerotechnical Institute initiated a new design utilizing the more powerful (20.31 kN (4,570 lbf)) Rolls-Royce Nene II turbojet engine.

[11] Like Dewoitine, German designer Kurt Tank, the former technical director of the Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG, had been hired in 1947 to work on a jet fighter project for Argentina.

[17][N 2] After his appointment as project director for a new indigenous fighter program, Tank adapted the basic Ta 183 airframe for the Nene II engine, resulting in a new design that bore only a passing resemblance to its forebear.

Due to the similarity of the IAe-27a and Tank's redesign of the Ta 183, Juan Ignacio San Martín, the director of the Institute merged the two parallel projects as the IAe 33 Pulqui II.

[25] Armament was planned to include four 20 mm cannon, a pair mounted in a staggered, near-ventral position along each side of the fuselage slightly set back from the jet intake.

[26] To prove the soundness of the IAe 33 design, two gliders built under contract by another expatriate, Reimar Horten, were constructed and used for aerodynamics testing in 1948–1949, including flights by Tank himself.

[9] Two days before the exhibition, while practising his display routine, Behrens stalled the Pulqui II at low level and was killed in the resulting crash, which destroyed the prototype.

[22] A number of foreign buyers had expressed interest in the IAe 33, including the Netherlands in 1951 and Egypt in 1953, but the lack of a clear commitment to a production series hampered prospects for export sales, with both nations eventually settling on other readily available fighter aircraft.

[35] Severe economic problems led in 1951 to the Perón government using the Fábrica Militar de Aviones to build cars, trucks, and motorcycles,[36] including the IAME Rastrojero.

Moreover, Tank's team was not primarily focused on the IAe 33, completing the design of the FMA IA 35 Huanquero multi-purpose aircraft (transport, trainer and reconnaissance roles), that eventually entered production at the Dirección Nacional de Fabricación e Investigación Aeronáutica (DINFIA) (Spanish: "National Directorate of Aeronautical Manufacturing and Research").

The most devastating political decision was to divert the entire manufacturing program "seemingly overnight" to automotive products and agricultural equipment, essentially closing the aviation divisions.

[4] In September 1955, the sole remaining Pulqui II prototype was pressed into action in the Revolución Libertadora, a coup d'état led by General Eduardo Lonardi against Perón.

[38] After flying combat missions against Peronist stalwarts, it later appeared in a flyover during the victory parade at Córdoba celebrating the triumph of the coup over loyalist forces.

Based on the spares and wing and fuselage components at hand, the Fábrica Militar de Aviones asserted that ten aircraft could be constructed relatively quickly, however, the remainder of the order would take five years to complete.

Meanwhile, plans for an alternative replacement of the hundred aging Meteor F4s obtained in the late 1940s that constituted the backbone of the Air Force continued, initially centered on the acquisition of 36 Canadair CL-13B Mk 6 Sabres, an idea which was dropped in 1956 because the Central Bank was unable to provide the necessary foreign exchange.

[3] The continual evolution of the Pulqui II had resulted in the design team solving its inherent instability at high angles of attack,[41] as well as increasing fuel capacity through the use of a wet wing, to provide sufficient range.

[42] Consequently, the Argentine government decided to cancel the IAe 33 project at the zenith of its development, instead acquiring second-hand F-86F-40 Sabres from the United States at a "bargain-basement price" under the Mutual Defense Assistance Act.

[23] In 1960, after completing only twelve test fights in a new role as a transonic research platform, the last IAe 33 prototype was retired and placed in storage, bringing the Pulqui II project to an end.