Aero L-39 Albatros variant
Aero L-39 Albatros L-39MS
Second-generation military trainer developed from the L-39: strengthened fuselage, longer nose, thoroughly updated cockpit and a 21.6 kN Lotarev DV-2 engine giving a top speed of 872 km/h. It flew on 30 September 1986 and was later redesignated L-59.
- September 30, 1986
- First flight
History
The L-39MS is the Albatros's generational leap: not a detail upgrade but an aircraft reworked from the original airframe to operate at higher weights and speeds. It first flew on 30 September 1986 with a strengthened fuselage, a longer nose and a cockpit thoroughly brought up to date compared with the L-39C's.
The decisive difference lies in the powerplant. The veteran AI-25TL gives way to the Lotarev DV-2, a turbofan of 21.6 kN against the basic trainer's 16.87 kN, lifting maximum speed to 872 km/h and restoring the performance margin the aircraft had lost as operating weights and external loads grew through the armed versions.
The type was later redesignated L-59, the name under which it is known on the export market and under which Aero offered it as the Albatros's natural successor. Its development marks the boundary between the programme's first generation, still deeply Soviet in its engineering, and the later line of Western-equipped aircraft that would lead to the L-139 and the L-159 ALCA.