- Yes
- No
(Ariel view of the Odesa Aircraft Plant’s storage if numerous aircraft, including the L-39U in the centre)
History:
The L-39 is a Czechoslovakian aircraft which entered service in 1974 by Aero Vodochy to replace the L-29 as the Warsaw Pacts primary trainer aircraft.
It was a huge success, not only being adopted by a majority of Warsaw Pact members but was still getting plenty of orders since it’s introduction, with around 200 sold every year in the late 1980s.
One of said operators of the L-39 was the USSR. Upon collapsing in 1991, it’s air force was inherited by it’s successor states, including Ukraine which obtained various soviet operated aircraft including the L-39C, which would be the basis of the L-39U
In the early 2000s, a single L-39C was upgraded (allegedly with involvement with Israel’s Lahav Division from IAI) to accommodate a AI-25TShL engine, a new 12.7mm machine gun, PVD-5 and PVD-18-5M air pressure gauges to replace the Czech made ones and UV-26 flare ejector among other upgrades.
The prototype completed it’s successful maiden flight on the 13th of June, 2002. In the end, the L-39U remained as a prototype. It was last seen in the Odesa Aircraft Plant’s storage unit in late 2018.
While the L-39U never entered service, the Odesa Aircraft Plant did successfully modernise it’s L-39s into the L-39M and L-39M1 which remains in current Ukrainian service.
The Ukrainian air force instead used L-39Cs, L-39M1s and L-39ZAs as inheritance from the Soviet Union, modernisation from the Odesa Aircraft Plant and aid from Lithuania respectively.
Specifications:
Length: 12.13 meters
Height: 4.72 meters
Powerplants: 1x TRD AI-25TShL
Max speed: 799 km/h
Max altitude: 11,500 meters
Range: 925 km
Weight: Empty - 3,395 kg, Max takeoff - 5,600 kg
Armaments:
1x 12.7mm machine gun
4 underwing pylons to carry:
4x R-60 air-to-air missiles
4x R-60M air-to-air missiles
4x R-73,
2x B-8M rocket pods
2x or 4x UB-16 rocket pods
4x bombs with calibre up to 100 kg
2x 250kg bombs
2x UPK-23-250 gun containers
Sources:
https://www.airwar.ru/enc/other/l39u.html
https://www.key.aero/article/odessa-file
Ukraine conflict: Lithuania transfers L-39 light combat jet to Kyiv.
War in Ukraine: Volume 6: The Air War February-March 2022 - Tom Cooper, Adrien Fontanellaz, Milos Sipos - Google Books