The THK-16 Mehmetçik (Turkish: "Little Mehmet"^[1]) was an aircraft designed in Turkey in the early 1950s to provide the Turkish Air Force with a domestically designed and built jet trainer. The project was cancelled without the aircraft having been built.^[2][3]

As designed, the THK-16 was to have been a conventional, mid-wing monoplane with the pilot and instructor seated in tandem under a long canopy. Power would have been provided by two small turbojets mounted in underwing nacelles, and construction was to have been metal throughout.^[3] Design work was practically complete in 1952 when Türk Hava Kurumu was bought out by MKEK. Although the THK-16 was selected as one of the THK designs that MKEK felt was worth continuing with and allocated the designation MKEK-3, the Turkish Air Force purchased the Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star as its jet trainer and work on the local design was abandoned.^[3]

Data from Cebeci 2004

General characteristics

• Crew: 2
• Length: 7.00 m (23 ft 0 in)
• Wingspan: 10.00 m (32 ft 10 in)
• Height: 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
• Wing area: 14.0 m² (151 sq ft)
• Empty weight: 510 kg (1,124 lb)
• Gross weight: 1,100 kg (2,425 lb)
• Powerplant: 2 × Turbomeca Piméné , 0.7 kN (160 lbf) thrust each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 430 km/h (270 mph, 230 kn)
• Range: 710 km (440 mi, 380 nmi)
• Service ceiling: 12,000 m (39,000 ft)

• Cebeci, Uğur (21 March 2004). "52 yıllık sır uçak Mehmetcik". Hürriyet. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
• Taylor, Michael J. H. (1989). Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation. London: Studio Editions.
• Brosnahan, Tom; Pat Yale; Richard Plunkett (2005). Turkey. Melbourne: Lonely Planet.