Yugoslav Aeronautical Institute

The Yugoslav Aeronautical Institute ( serbokroat. Vazduhoplovnotehnički institute / Ваздухопловнотехнички институт), established in Žarkovo in Belgrade was founded in 1946 and was responsible for the research and development of aircraft in Yugoslavia in charge, similar to the Soviet ZAGI or the German DLR . The institute was dissolved with the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1992 and integrated into the Military Technical Institute ( Vojnotehnički institut - VTI ).

history

Before the Second World War, there were five aircraft manufacturers in Yugoslavia : the private companies Rogožarski , Ikarus , Utva , Zmaj , all near Belgrade and Novi Sad , and the State Aircraft Factory in Kraljevo . Most of the time, aircraft were manufactured under license. a. the Breguet 19 , Potez 25 , Dornier Do 17 or Hawker Hurricane ; But there were also self-developed models such as the Ikarus IK-2 or Rogožarski IK-3 .

Most of these factories were destroyed during the Second World War; only at Zmaj near Zemun did the so-called Independent State of Croatia run a modest production of aircraft models such as the Fizir FN, which were already obsolete at that time .

After the Second World War, the Yugoslav state tried to rebuild the domestic aviation industry. In contrast to the monarchy, however, in the new socialist state the remains of the above-mentioned factories were nationalized and combined to form the State Aircraft Factory (Državna Fabrika Aviona). For the development of aircraft, which was previously mostly carried out by private companies themselves and on their own account, a central research and design office was established, the Yugoslav Aeronautical Institute, based in Žarkovo , in which leading domestic aircraft designers from the time before the war such as Kosta Sivčev or Sima Milutinović should be employed. The aeronautical engineering institute was one of three military research institutes in Yugoslavia , alongside the army institute in Belgrade and the naval institute in Zagreb .

organization

The institute had ten departments that were responsible for technology, information technology, aerodynamics, experimental aerodynamics, aircraft structure, experimental structure, systematics, propulsion technology, aviation and documentation. It recently had eight wind tunnels , including the T-38, in which objects could be experimentally examined at flow speeds of Mach numbers up to 3 and which was built in cooperation with companies from Canada and the United States .

There was international cooperation with Boeing , Douglas Aircraft Company , Airbus , Dassault Aviation , British Aerospace , Flygtekniska försöksanstalten and ONERA .

The institute's projects that have been implemented include a.

Projects that were canceled in the development phase were a. the Pelikan transport aircraft , which did not go into series production due to a lack of financial resources, and the Novi Avion fighter aircraft , which could not be realized when Yugoslavia fell apart.

Dissolution of the institute

The Yugoslav Aviation Technical Institute was dissolved in 1992 when Yugoslavia split into several independent states. In the same year it was integrated into the Belgrade Military Technical Institute ( Vojnotehnički institut ) founded in 1948 . Unlike the Yugoslav Aviation Technical Institute, the Military Technical Institute is designed for general military technical research. In the field of aviation, the projects of the former Yugoslav Aviation Technology Institute were no longer continued. This is particularly because the most important aerospace manufacturing factories, Soko in Mostar (aircraft construction) and Rajlovac (jet engines and aviation academy) near Sarajevo, were dissolved as a result of the war in Yugoslavia.