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In 1953, European aircraft manufacturers were invited by NATO to submit aircraft for evaluation for the "LWSF" (Light Weight Strike Fighter) role. The aircraft first flew on August 1 1956 and the competing designs were evaluated in 1957. Besides the G.91, these included the Northrop N156, Dassault Etendard IV, Sud-Est Baroudeur , Aerfer ArieteThe Aerfer Ariete ( Italian: Ram) was a prototype fighter aircraft built in Italy in 1958. It was a refined derivative of the Aerfer Sagittario 2, and was an attempt to bring that aircraft up to a standard where it could be mass-produced as a viable comba and Bregeut Taon . Despite the G.91's impressive performance in trials, the FrenchThe French Republic or France ( French: Republique francaise or France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents. government preferred to pursue development of the locally-designed Etendard, and the BritishThe word Britain is used to refer to the United Kingdom (UK): i. the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (from 1927), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ( 1801- 1927) or the United Kingdom of Great Britain ( 1707- 1801). government ignored the competition to concentrate on Hawker HunterThe Hawker Hunter was a British jet fighter aircraft of the 1950s. Considered by many to be the finest transonic fighter, the Hunter served for many years with the Royal Air Force, and was widely exported, serving with 19 air forces. A total of 1,927 was production for the same role. In fairness, it should also be pointed out that the Italian government also ordered the G.91 for the Italian Air Force before the results of the competition were known. (These pre-production machines would later go on to serve for many years with the Italian aerobatic team, the Frecce TricoloriFrecce Tricolori (Tricolor Arrow) is the precision aerobatic demonstration team for the Italian Air Force. The team flies the Aermacchi MB-339-A/PAN, a two-seat fighter-trainer and anti-tank craft capable of roughly 898 km/h at sea level. Unfortunately, m).
Aeritalia built 174 G.91s for Italy, plus 144 for Germany (including 50 that had been ordered and then cancelled by GreeceGreece formally called the Hellenic Republic (in Greek: ) Hellenike Demokratia , is a country in the southeast of Europe on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula. It is bounded on land by Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania and TurkeyTurkey (officially the Republic of Turkey Turkish Turkiye is a country located in Southwest Asia with a small part in southeastern Europe. Until 1922 the country was the center of the Ottoman Empire. The Anatolian peninsula, between the Black Sea and the). Another 294 were built in Germany by Flugzeug-Union Sud (a consortium of former competitors Messerschmitt, Heinkel, and Dornier). The type was also considered by Austria, Norway, Switzerland, and even the United States Army, which briefly evaluated the type as a possible Forward Air Control (FAC) aircraft before relinquishing all fixed-wing aircraft operations to the USAF.
From 1961, Portugal began to purchase the G.91 to deploy to her former African colonies of Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, and Angola in the close-support role. The first 40 were purchased second-hand from the Luftwaffe out of the aircraft that had originally been produced for Greece and which differed from the rest of the Luftwaffe G.91s sufficiently to create maintenance problems. The aircraft replaced the F-86 Sabres, which were withdrawn following US protests over the use of these aircraft that had originally been supplied for defensive purposes. Portuguese G.91s continued in this role until the withdrawal from Africa in 1975.
Portugal finally phased out the last of her G.91s in 1993, and Italy in 1995. There are numerous examples preserved in museums around the world.