Photograph:
LET L-200 Morava VH-EMV (c/n 170411) at Albion Park, NSW in 2011 (David C Eyre)
Country of origin:
Czechoslovakia
Description:
Four/five seat twin-engine cabin monoplane
Power Plant:
Two 157 kw (210 hp) Walter M337 six-cylinder in-line inverted supercharged fuel injected air-cooled engines
Specifications:
- [L-200A]
- Wingspan: 12.31 m (40 ft 4½ in)
- Length: 8.61 m (28 ft 3 in)
- Height: 2.25 m (7 ft 4 in)
- Wing area: 17.28 m² (186 sq ft)
- Max speed at 1,829 m (6,000 ft): 310 km/h (193 mph)
- Max cruising speed at 2,499 m (8,200 ft): 295 m/h (183 mph)
- Economical cruising speed: 256 km/h (159 mph)
- Minimum flying speed, undercarriage and flaps up: 117 km/h (73 mph)
- Stalling speed, undercarriage and flaps down: 112 km/h (70 mph)
- Max rate of climb at sea level: 480 m/min (1,575 ft/min)
- Service ceiling: 6,200 m (20,340 ft)
- Single engine ceiling: 2,100 m (6,900 ft)
- Max range: 1,900 km (1,180 miles)
- Empty weight: 1,275 kg (2,810 lb)
- Loaded weight: 1,950 kg (4,300 lb)
History:
The Morava was designed by Ladislav Smrcek as a four/five seat successor to the Aero 145, and the prototype, the first of three (OK-LNA), was flown for the first time on 8 April 1957. This aircraft, known as the XL-200, was powered by two 119 kw (160 hp) Walter Minor 6-III in-line six cylinder engines. In 1957 ten pre-production L-200s were built and it was ordered into production. The first production model, the L-200, was similarly powered to the prototype, but only small numbers were built, with deliveries commencing in 1958. The first major production model was the L-200A, which was fitted with the more powerful, fuel-injected, M337 engines. This model differed from the L-200 in having a modified fuselage with a lower forward cabin roof, hydraulics instead of electrics for the undercarriage and flap operation, and two-blade V-410 propellers. The first L-200A was shown at the Paris Airshow in July 1959. The L-200B and L-200C models were not produced.
The final version of the series built was the L-200D, which was basically similar to the L-200A but had three-blade hydraulically operated V506 constant-speed airscrews in place of the electrically operated V410 two-blade propellers, a strengthened undercarriage, and improved hydraulics and electronics. Deliveries of this model commenced in 1962. The prototype of the L-200D (OK-NIA) was converted from an L-200A in 1960. A considerable number of Moravas were exported to the USSR where it was operated by Aeroflot on aerial taxi services. The licence production of the type was also commenced in Yugoslavia in 1964 by Letalski Institut ‘Branko Ivanus’ Slovenija (LIBIS), five being completed from parts supplied by LET. Aircraft were also built in Czechoslovakia at Kunovice by LET.
Total production of the series was 367 aircraft, with prototypes, including 197 L-200Ds. A prototype (OK-PHB) of a new model known as the L-210, seating six, was developed from an L-200D in 1966 with 183 kw (245 hp) M-338 engines but did not enter production. Twenty Moravas were used by the Czech Air Force, 45 by Czechoslovak Airlines, and a number were operated in Poland as aerial ambulances.
Two Moravas have been registered in Australia. The first machine described as a CZL L-200A Morava, (c/n 170411), carried the registration OK-OHC when it arrived for the distributor, Dulmison. It subsequently became VH-EMV in December 1962, and was operated by Coastal Airways Ltd, Ansett-ANA in northern Queensland, and C H Parsons Pty Ltd until withdrawn from service in October 1969. In 1980 it was transported by truck from Queensland to Bankstown, NSW where it was rebuilt and was operated by a number of owners for some years. In the late 1990s it underwent a further rebuild for its owner Qantas Airbus A380 Captain, Bruce Simpson. In later years it was based at Camden, NSW, thereafter moving to Albion Park, NSW to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) Museum as part of its fleet. In 2013, after being painted in its old Ansett Airways colour scheme, work commenced to return the aircraft to airworthiness, with a post restoration flight expected in 2021.
In February 2010 a further example arrived in Australia for Rhucross Pty Ltd of Springwood, QLD. This aircraft, an L-200D, became VH-OKP (c/n 171402 – ex M-RAVA, OK-RHJ (OK-MAL), SP-NXY, SP-NAC).