The sound of 50's

“Welcome on webpage of OK-DAJ

The only Aero-145 in the Czech SKY!”



About

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<strong>The Aero 145</strong> is a later version of Aero 45 model. It's a twin piston-engined civil utility aircraft produced in Czechoslovakia after World War II. It was the first product of the nation's post-war aviation industry and proved a great success, with many of the 590 produced exported.

Design

Just watch

The development began in 1946 and was accomplished by the czech technical designers Jiři Bouzek, Ondřej Němec and František Vik. The design bears a superficial resemblance, viewed nose-on, to the German Siebel type Si-204 which, among other German aircraft like the Bf 109, were produced in Czechoslovakia while under German occupation . The first prototype flew for the first time on 21 July 1947, the second prototype, one year later. Flight testing ran without incidents and the type was released for series production in 1948. The model number of "45" was not a continuation of Aero's pre-war numeration scheme, but a reference to the 4/5 seats in the aircraft.

Performance

Fell The Power

Crew: one, pilot
Capacity: 3-4 passengers
Length: 25 ft 6 in
Wingspan: 46 ft 21⁄2 in
Height: 7 ft 6 in
Wing area: 184 ft²
Airfoil: Aero No. 58-64
Empty weight: 2,116 lb
Loaded weight: 3,306 lb.
Max. takeoff weight: 3,527 lb
Powerplant: 2 × Walter M 332-III air-cooled 4-cylinder inline engine, 140 hp each

Engine

Just listen

The Avia M 332 (originally known as the Walter M332) is an air-cooled four-cylinder inverted inline engine. It was designed by Bohumil Šimůnek, of Motorlet Walter Aircraft Engines, as a more powerful replacement for the four-cylinder Walter Minor engine, going into production in 1958. Piston aircraft engine production was transferred from Walter to Avia in 1964, the engine becoming the Avia M 332. The same engine was applied on other aircrafts such as Carlson Criquet, Fry Esprit VFII, L-40 Meta Sokol and Rolandas Kalinauskas RK-5 Ruth.

Operations

Some Records

Ae-45 prototypes were widely advertised abroad. In August 1949 Jan Anderle won Norton Griffiths Race in Great Britain. They also set several international records. As a result, apart from Eastern Bloc countries, the plane was also bought by Italy and Switzerland. On 10-11 August 1958 an Italian Ae-45 flew 3000 kilometers from South America to Dakar across southern Atlantic (as the first Czechoslovak-built aircraft), in 1981 Jon Svensen flew Ae-45S from Europe to the USA. This type was used in Czechoslovakia and was exported to the China, East Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Soviet Union and Switzerland.



Story

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News from my House
  • AERO (SPP) AE-145, OK-DAJ


    This aircraft was manufactured in Kunovice during a year 1959 as a serial number 171911. It was directly sold into Yugoslavian army.  It’s last  years spent in Aeroclub of Josip Križaj in the Ajdovščina village.

    According to it’s log book, despite two visits of Czech Republic  for maintenance purposes, in 1967 and 1983, Aero was flown mainly in Yugoslavia under the sign of YU-BBY for the whole length of it’s duty. It’s almost sure that aircraft was used as courier for Yugoslavian National Army (JNA) till the 1991. After that, aircraft was left in Aeroclub Ajdovščina.

    Initial painting was silver color with blue strips. Later on, army gave to the Aero picturesque camouflage of american airplanes from the beginning of First World War. Which is olive green on top, blue on below and white-red horizontal strips on the rudder. All this with red communist stars.
    In 90’s the camouflage painting was changed to light grey pixelated spots, which is already possible to see on photographs.

    After 1991, aircraft received new civil sign S5-DAJ and advertisement on the fuselage. It didn’t fly to much since. Approximately 15 hours per year. But It seems people in aeroclub loved the machine so much that proper maintenance was routinely done till they completely ran out of spare parts a possibly even nerves with the never ending repairs.
    By the beginning of 2006 they offered Aero for sale on the internet.

    After our initial survey it was sure that Aero needs general restoration. Anyway reasonable concern existed that carry flight may be successful. Thanks to Mr. Unzeitig, it was and aircraft was took to the Brno, Czech Republic where restored by Mr. Malinsky. In 2007 Aero obtained new registration sign OK-DAJ and is flying happily all over the Europe ever after.

     



Contact

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