The fly-off at Monino

In 1961 three jet trainers were lined up at Monino airfield outside Moscow. The Soviet Union wanted one machine to train pilots across the whole Warsaw Pact, and the contenders were Poland’s PZL TS-11 Iskra, Russia’s own Yakovlev Yak-30 and a straight-winged Czechoslovak jet called the L-29 Delfín. After two months of evaluation the verdict went to the outsider: the L-29 had suffered no failures in testing while its rivals ran into serious problems, and it needed the least runway. More than 2,000 went to the Soviet Air Force alone. The company that built it was Aero, from a village north of Prague.

Born with a new country

Aero was founded on 25 February 1919, less than four months after Czechoslovakia declared independence, to build and repair aircraft and parts. Its first designs were the A-1 military trainer and the Ae-02 fighter of 1920, and its chief pilot Josef Novák flew 30 new aircraft and set nine national records. In 1923 the firm moved to Vysočany in Prague and grew into a major defence supplier, turning out around 250 A-11 bombers and the A-100 reconnaissance biplane. Between 1929 and 1951 an Aero subsidiary even built cars with two-stroke engines.

Under occupation, and after

German occupation in 1939 turned the factory to German designs: 200 Bücker Bü 131 Jungmann trainers in 1939–1940, and Siebel Si 204D twin-engine transports and trainers from 1943. After the war it was the Ae 45 light twin, of which 200 were built, that kept the works busy. In 1953 Aero left Prague altogether for a new site at Vodochody, laid out for one purpose: jet production. The factory and its runway are still the company’s home today.

Building MiGs for Moscow’s allies

The jets arrived under Soviet licence. Aero built the MiG-15 as the S-102 and the improved MiG-15bis as the S-103, followed by 103 MiG-19s as the S-105 and the MiG-21F-13 as the S-106. How many MiG-15s left Vodochody depends on whom you ask: Wikipedia counts 821 S-102s and 620 S-103s, while the company’s own history gives 3,405 MiG-15s, a figure that appears to include all versions. Either way, building other people’s fighters gave Aero the skills to design its own.

Jan Vlček’s Albatros

The man who used those skills best was Jan Vlček. Having contributed to the L-29, he led the team that from 1964 designed its successor, a two-seat, single-engine trainer for the Warsaw Pact. The L-39 Albatros first flew on 4 November 1968 with test pilot Rudolf Duchoň at the controls. Around 2,900 were built up to 1996, and by the end of the century more than 2,800 had served with over 30 air forces. Its second life was in civilian hands: by 2012 there were 255 L-39s on the US civil register, and the Breitling Jet Team flies seven.

The fighter nobody could afford

After communism Aero bet on a light combat jet, the L-159 ALCA, first flown on 4 August 1997. The Czech government ordered 72 for around 50 billion koruna, and Boeing took a controlling stake in 1998. But in 2003 the Czech fleet was cut to 24, leaving dozens of brand-new jets in storage. Boeing pulled out in 2004, and Penta Investments bought the company in 2006 for roughly 3 billion koruna. The stored L-159s found new careers: 14 went to Iraq in 2015 and flew against ISIS, while 21 went to the American aggressor-training firm Draken International.

Skyfox, and a Hungarian owner

The comeback aircraft is the L-39NG. Its first prototype flew on 22 December 2018, and in 2024, as serial production got going, it was named the L-39 Skyfox. Vietnam took all 12 of its aircraft in 2024, Hungary ordered 12 and the Czech training centre at Pardubice four. Penta sold Aero in 2021 to Hungary’s HSC Aerojet, controlled by businessman Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky with Czech arms group Omnipol holding 20 per cent. In 2024 Aero earned CZK 6.0 billion and returned to profit, also building C-390 fuselage sections for Embraer and A220 wing leading edges for Airbus.

Factories

• Vysočany works · Vysočany, Prague — Home of Aero from 1923 to 1953
• Vodochody · Vodochody, north of Prague — Purpose-built jet factory and airfield occupied from 1953; airfield sold with the company in 2021
• Brno development centre · Brno, Moravia — Engineering and development site

People

• Jan Vlček · chief designer (1922–1984) — Contributed to the L-29, led design of the L-39 from 1964
• Z. Rublič and K. Tomáš · designers — Headed development of the L-29 Delfín
• Rudolf Duchoň · test pilot — Flew the L-39 on its first flight, 4 November 1968
• Josef Novák · chief pilot, 1920s — Flew 30 new aircraft and set nine national records
• Viktor Sotona · president and chief executive since 2021 — Previously ran Czech firm ERA for nine years

Records and firsts

• L-29 Delfín selected in 1961 as the standard jet trainer of the Warsaw Pact after a fly-off at Monino
• Company history calls the L-29 the most successful training aircraft ever produced, with 3,665 built
• An unmodified L-29 made the first jet flight on 100 per cent biodiesel, Nevada to Florida, 2 October 2007