The Utva aircraft plant in Pancevo presented tested its new four-seat trainer named Sova (owl), the Beta news agency reported on Thursday, adding that the light plane was flown for an hour at the presentation.
The new trainer aircraft was developed from the Utva-75 which was made in the 1980s and are still in use in Serbia and the Sudan. The idea was for the plane to have enough room for an instructor and three students.
The Sova has a 210 HP engine instead of the 180 HP engine in the Utva-75. A demonstration prototype was initially presented at the Partner 2015 exhibition in Belgrade and work on the project was launched after that.
The new trainer has Garmin avionics and has a maximum speed of 230 kmh. It can remain airborne for more than four hours with 175 litres of fuel.
Utva’s owner, the Jugoimport-SDPR company which deals in military equipment, offers a basic trainer version as well as an armed version for combat training or counter-insurgency operations. That version is armed with two 7.62 mm machineguns or two seven-barrel 57 mm guided rocket launchers. It can carry two 50 kilogram bombs.
Utva also makes the Lasta trainer which has an engine of 315 HP. A total of 37 Lasta’s have been made – 17 for the Serbian military and 20 for the Iraqi air force.