Aero L-29  Delfin
[ real aircraft info ]

The Aero L-29 Delfin was developed as a military trainer aircraft by the Czechoslovak company Aero Vodochody. The L-29 prototype first flew August 1959 (equipped with a British Viper engine) and it was the first jet aircraft for the company. The design was straight forward with an unswept wing, with Fowler flaps, two root intakes and a later a local manufactured M701 jet engine. Its maximum speed was about 650 km/hr and the L-29 could operate also from simple grass runways. The L-29 would, after winning a sort of jet trainer competition, become the primary jet trainer for many Warsaw Pact countries. Production started in 1963 and the first versions had a perforated air brake and large rudder. Later L-29 series had non-perforated air brakes and a bit smaller rudder. Training weaponry were 57mm unguided rocket pods and for longer endurance two 150 liters fuel tanks could be carried under the wing. The L-29 was also used in large numbers by the Soviet Union next to their MiG-15UTI trainer and got the NATO reporting name "Maya". The L-29A was a single seater known as Acrobat and also a few armed versions were developed including a photo recon version L-29R from 1965. The L-29 was also used for aerobatic training. The L-29 was used by  dozens of air forces with over 3,600 aircraft manufactured. Some were used in local conflicts and carried machine gun pods and dropped small bombs.
During a few trips after the "fall of die Mauer" some visits were made and real L-29's seen. But these were often quite bad condition, so only a few photos were made.    seen at Kbely, Prague museum
From various sources like Flight manuals and maintenance manuals, some photo's are shown that are useful when modelling details of the L-29  ----------------- DRAWINGs AND DIMENSIONs: wing span: 10,29 m length: 10,81 m wing area: 19,85 m2 empty weight std.: 2364 kgs TO weight:  3280 kgs max.ceiling about 11,000 meters range about 900 km with 2 fuel tanks ... .... right aft....    --------------------------------------  ---------------------------------------  LIGHTs:  --------------------------------------------- ANTENNAs:  ------------------------------------------- SEATs:  ------------------------------------------------- INSTRUMENT PANELs:  -------------------------------------------------------------    ============================= CONTROLs: Fowler flaps (2x2) and ailerons.  ------------------------------------------------------ LANDING GEARs  ------------------------ ENGINE M701 :  ------------------------------------------------------
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References: - L-29, Mark 1 ltd. publishers with 4+ publications, 2010 (also has decals with this booklet)   - several drawings from modelling magazines and 4+ publications. - L-29 , Scale Aircraft Modelling magazine of Sept 1989 - Flugzeuge der DDR, Detlef Billig und Manfred Meyer, BAND II, Motorbuch Verlag, published 2002:  pages 78-87
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