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По русски| AIRCRAFT |
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HISTORY HISTORY |
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You may like to know that... The U.S. Air Force Academy cadets and instructors have so far made over 45,000 flights in their Blanik gliders, flying them for over 15,000 hours. Practically each new pilot of the U.S. Air Force starts his training on a Blanik glider. | The beginning of the exciting story of LET dates back to 1936 when a branch of AVIA Letňany was built in Kunovice to service AVIA planes. During the WWII the company was forced to repair the Junkers W34 and Arado Ar 96b for Luftwaffe and after the war it worked on almost all the types of aeroplanes that were flying in Czechoslovakia. At the beginning of the 50’s begun the construction of a new aeronautical company, which first produced the Russian JAK 11 and the AERO Ae 45 and AERO Ae 145.
In 1957 the company begun to develop the famous L 200 Morava and four years later the Z 37 Bumble Bee, which both brought a huge commercial success. For a period of time LET also produced a light training aircraft L 29. Over the years LET developed and produced a number of different gliders – Zlin Z 22, Z 124 Galanka, LF 109 Pioneer, Z 425 Sohaj. However the most popular gliders produced in LET are the famous Blaniks – L 13, L 23 and L 33. During the 60s LET’s engineers developed a 19 seat commuter turboprop – the L 410, of which more than 1,000 were produced since then. This popular aircraft has gone through a number of improvements and modernisations and the current types, the L 410 UVP-E20 and L 420 are EASA and FAA certified respectively. In September 2005 the company was acquired by the Czech private group PAMCO and new company under the trade name Aircraft Industries was formed. In June 2008 the Russian industrial holding Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UGMK) acquired 51% of company shares.
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