L-29 Delfin Egypt Air
Force
In the late 50's the
Soviet Union issued an requirement for a new jet powered training aircraft. The Aero Vodochody applied for this with L-29 Delfin against the Yakovlev's jet and Iskra from Poland. The construction of the Delfin was
simple and easy to handle and operate. In 1961 the Delfin emerged as the winner. The story of the most successful jet trainer
had begun.....
In the 60's the Egyptian Air Force was searching for new trainers to replace the Yak-11 and Gomhuria and provide up to date training facility for the students who later go to the advanced jets such as
MiG-21F and PF and Su-7s. The gap was wide between the old piston engined trainers and the new
Mach 2 fighters.... in that time came the L-29 Delfin out to the weapon market in the Eastern Block. Nasser's Egypt
has a very tight connection with the Soviet Union so eventually the decision was
simple.... the L-29 Delfin. The aircraft started her carrier at the Air Force Academy in Bilbais.
In the 1973 Yom Kippur War the L-29 revealed his success in the CAS role, the Egyptian Air Force pilots made professional attacks against Israeli targets near the canal zone and as far as I know none of them were lost....
In the late 70's and early 80's the entire fleet underwent heavy maintenance at the Vodochody in Trencin, Czechoslovakia. They got their disruptive camouflage sand-green-chocolate on the upper surface and light blue on the under surface.... (some sources claim red under surfaces but I cant find any photo evidence about this)
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
The kit was horrible from the 70's, this was the KP's first plastic kit! Raised panel lines, no cockpit at all, missing wheel wells and following those days
made lots of rivets everywhere. I started the building with sanding.... sanded all the outer surface removing the raised panel lines and rivets... During these days
I collected the photos and walkarounds about the Delfin. I purchased Pavla's resin cockpit and vacuformed canopy. The installation wasn't so easy
and required much dry fitting. I rescribed the panel lines and redid the wheel wells from plastic
sheet and copper wires. I realized the kit's landing gear leg is totally wrong, so I collected many photos about this part of the aircraft and
measured the dimensions of the legs. I used also plastic sheet to build the legs. The
Pavla resin wheels were used.