Difference between revisions of "Avia S-92 Turbina"

During World War II multiple factories in Czechoslovakian were employed by the Germans to produce different parts for the Me-262 A-1 fighter and Me-262 B-1 trainer aircraft. At the end of hostilities in Europe the factories and parts were captured by Soviet forces, all complete aircraft and some parts were taken back to the Soviet Union for testing. The jibs, tools and documents within the factories were handed over to the newly restored Czechoslovakian government though. Using some of the parts left by the soviets along with others newly constructed in the wartime factories Avia set to work to produce their own version of the Me-262 A-1 and Me-262 B-1. The first of the single seat aircraft the Avia S-92 was completed in August 1946 with the first two seater Avia CS-92 trainer flowing in December 1946. The aircraft proved to be difficult and extremely time consuming to make with many of the parts having to be individually hand made, making each plane slightly unique. As such only nine Avia S-92 and three CS-92 were completed over the next three years before production was discontinued. They served in the 5th fighter squadron as a training unit to help pilots get their first experience with jet aircraft. Most were scrapped in the 1950's but a single S-92 and CS-92 remain on display in the Prague Aviation Museum.

Yugoslavia showed interest in buying the S-92 and CS-92 and placed an order for one of each for evaluation but didn't receive any aircraft. There are reports that Israel bought several S-92 and one of them exploded during a test flight in April 1950, however there is no evidence to substantiate this. There have been suggestions that the aircraft that exploded was really a Gloster Meteor that the British had secretly given to Israel for testing and it was claimed to be a S-92 to cover it up, while slightly more plausible this is still a matter of conjecture.

References

• Wikipedia CZ
• Aviastar