Aero L-39 Albatros variant
Aero L-39 Albatros L-39ZO
The first armed Albatros trainer: four underwing pylons, a strengthened wing and modified landing gear, with a 1,150 kg external load. It flew on 25 June 1975 and 337 were built.
- June 25, 1975
- First flight
- 337
- Units built
History
The Z in L-39ZO stands for zbraně, «weapons», and sums up the version's purpose: to give the Albatros a weapons capability the basic trainer lacked. It first flew on 25 June 1975 and was conceived as an interim answer for export customers, which is why the sources describe it as an interim weapons trainer.
The changes are structural rather than electronic. The wing is strengthened to take four pylons instead of two — the inboard pair stressed for 500 kg, the outboard pair for 250 kg, for a total external load of 1,150 kg — and the landing gear is modified to absorb the higher operating weights. The powerplant remains the basic trainer's Ivchenko AI-25TL turbofan, so the extra capability is paid for in performance whenever the aircraft flies loaded.
The first deliveries went to Iraq in 1977, part of a commercial relationship that made that country one of the Albatros's major users. With 337 built, the L-39ZO is the second most numerous version of the family after the L-39C itself, and the one that paved the way for the L-39ZA, which pushed the same idea further with a ventral gun pod and a still sturdier undercarriage.