New light Attack plane for Arab Air Forces

The Aero L-29 Delfin (English: Dolphin, NATO reporting name: Maya) is a military jet trainer aircraft that became the standard jet trainer for the air forces of Warsaw Pact nations in the 1960s. It was Czechoslovakia's first locally designed and built jet aircraft.

In the late 1950s, the Soviet Air Force was seeking a jet-powered replacement for its fleet of piston-engined trainers. The basic design concept was to produce a straightforward, easy-to-build and operate aircraft. The Delfin served in basic, intermediate and weapons training roles. For this latter mission, they were equipped with hardpoints to carry gunpods, bombs or rockets, Egyptian, Syrian & Iraqi L-29s were sent into combat against Israel during the Yom Kippur War.

Production began April 1963 and continued for 11 years, with 3,600 eventually built until 1974. The majority went to the Soviet and Warsaw Pact air forces. The rest were exported to air forces allied with the Soviet Union. The majority of those exported to Africa and the Middle East were of the L-29R light attack version, available with nose cameras and underwing stores. Provision for a camera gun and gun sight, light armament of either two bombs of up to 100kg, eight air-to-ground rockets or two 7.62mm machine-gun pods under the wings.

This excellent model and textures were created by Tim Conrad.