Bücker Bü 131 Jungmann variant

Bücker Bü 131 Jungmann Tatra T.131

Jungmann built under licence by Ringhoffer-Tatra at Kopřivnice before the occupation of Czechoslovakia, with the 105 hp Walter Minor 4-II engine: a private venture that ended up with the state aero clubs.

Bücker Bü 131 Jungmann sheet

Image pending

History

Czechoslovakia was among the first countries to build the Jungmann under licence. According to the German Wikipedia, Ringhoffer-Tatra acquired the rights in 1937 and produced the aircraft at its Kopřivnice plant in Moravia, with the local 105 hp Walter Minor 4-II engine instead of the Hirth. The 1983 Air Britain Digest explains that it was a private venture by Tatra: the Czechoslovak Air Force did not select the type and the aircraft went to the state aero clubs instead. The first one carried the registration OK-TAB.

The sources disagree on how many were built: the English Wikipedia speaks of 11 aircraft (one prototype and ten production examples), the German one of some 16 out of 35 ordered, and the Air Britain Digest quotes both 10 and 35 depending on the reference. For that reason the census sets no figure. Production ceased with the German occupation in 1939; when Jungmann manufacture resumed in the country it was at the Aero plant in Prague, as Bü 131D-2s for the Luftwaffe and, after the war, as the Aero C-4 and C-104.

The legacy of the T.131 lives on at Kopřivnice: the Air Britain Digest notes that a flying replica, registered OK-AXM, is preserved at the Tatra technical museum as a reminder of the car and truck maker's brief aeronautical episode.