A glider club in Zemun

Utva began on 5 June 1937 as a gliding co-operative in Zemun, beside Belgrade, and for its first two years it built nothing but gliders. In 1939 it was turned into a proper aircraft factory, and in 1940 it moved to Pančevo, north-east of the capital, where it assembled the German Bücker Bü 131 Jungmann trainer under licence. Before the war reached Yugoslavia in 1941 it had turned out 39 gliders and well over a hundred Jungmanns. The factory was damaged in the war and rebuilt between 1944 and 1946, working at first as a repair shop and equipment plant.

Trainers for a new air force

Aircraft production resumed in 1948, and Utva made itself the Yugoslav Air Force’s trainer factory. The Trojka, first flown in 1946, was followed by the 213 Vihor and the Aero 3, of which 110 were built after a first flight in 1956. The UTVA 66 of 1966, a rugged STOL liaison aircraft that could operate from rough fields, was built in about 130 examples, including ambulance, float and armed versions. The UTVA 75, first flown in 1976 with gull-wing doors and side-by-side seats, became the air force’s basic trainer: 136 were delivered between 1978 and 1985, and they passed to Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia and Montenegro when Yugoslavia broke up. In all Utva has built more than 900 aircraft.

Orao parts and NATO bombs

Utva also built components for the Soko J-22 Orao attack jet and G-4 Super Galeb trainer, and a new factory complex was built at Pančevo in 1987. When the Soko works at Mostar was torn apart in the Bosnian war, part of its equipment was moved to Utva. Then came 1999. The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia badly damaged the Pančevo factory and destroyed the prototypes of its new Lasta trainer. In 1996 the company had merged with the Lola Institute, and the following decades brought financial trouble and shrinking staff.

Lasta, Sova and the drones

Development of the Lasta resumed in 2006, and the Lasta 95 first flew on 26 February 2009. Iraq ordered 20 as basic trainers, delivered from 2010 to 2012, and the Serbian Air Force took the Lasta 95V-54; 37 Lastas had been built by 2022. In February 2017 the state arms exporter Yugoimport–SDPR bought 96 per cent of the company. Utva has since presented the Sova, an upgraded UTVA 75 with digital avionics and a more powerful engine, and turned to drones: the small Vrabac from 2008, the larger Pegaz from 2011, and the Gavran 145 and Osica in 2022–2023.

Fabrieken

• Pančevo works · Pančevo, Vojvodina — Home since 1940; new complex 1987; damaged in 1999