Hi all!
Dear
AM, many thanks for your great work, but I have some little remarks.
1. You noted Z-IX
Pošták, Z-XI and Z-XVIII as motor gliders. I think it isn’t very correct. Z-IX was an ultralight aircraft, two others were two-seat light aircrafts of the same class as Z-XII (while different in layout). Any of them wasn’t very “glider-like”.
Also Z-IX wasn’t built in 1934, but in 1936 – even later than Z-XII. Maybe there was some other unbuilt project named Z-IX earlier (as it was with Z-X and Z-XII), but I don’t know anything about it.
2. Are you sure that a glider named Z-13 was produced in 1946-49? My source is 2-volume
Československa letadla bible by V. Nĕmeček, and he doesn’t mention any other Z-13 besides the 1937 courier / racing aircraft. But Z-23 school glider was produced at the same time (1946-49) and in the same number (211) as you specified for the mysterious “Z-13”. Maybe you committed a mistake here? Also, a popular name of Z-23 glider was
Honza, not
Hansa.
3. Why did you note Z-35/135 helicopters as “license-build”? They are original Zlin designs. In 1958, when Zlin began to produce HC-2 helicopter, a special design team for future rotorcraft projects was organized there. This team created Z-35, Z-135, and Z-38 autogyro project. Its leader was eng. Jan Mikula – future Zlin chief designer, author of Z-42/43 and Z-50 families…
4. To my mind, it’s a bit strange to refer Z-42 as “aerobatic aircraft”, moreover the 4-seat Z-43. As for me, it would be more correct to specify Z-42/142/242 as trainers, and Z-43/143 as utility aircraft.
And also some remarks regarding Hesham’s additions – especially Z-33 and Z-41 projects. Hesham, you say that Z-33 was 2-seat; what’s your source about it? According to Nĕmeček, Z-33 (named
Derviš) actually looked much like your description, but was only 1-seat. Nĕmeček also claims that Z-33 was powered by 40-hp engine and projected maximum speed was 154 km/h. It was designed by eng. Ladislav Marcol – so most probably it was derived from his “homebuilt” PLK-5, rather than from Z-22 designed by Karel Tomaš.
Concerning Z-41 - it was mostly the same Z-42, but lighter, with 4-cylinder M-132 engine instead of 6-cylinder M-137. M-132 was projected as M-332 “aerobatic” version without compressor (it referred to M-332 in the same way as M-137 to M-337). But finally M-132 engine was never produced, and therefore Z-41 also remained on paper.
I attach here an updated version of
AM’s list: I corrected some dates, added designers’ names and
added the data about many unrealized projects (either mentioned or not in Hesham’s post). The only remaining “mysteries” are: Z-XVII, Z-XIX, Z-27, Z-29, Z-40, Z-49 and the gap between Z-52 and Z-61. (Z-40 was probably skipped, as it was “common name” for the whole, highly unified family from Z-41 to Z-46). I attach also the photo gallery of pre-war Zlins (the postwar ones are common known, I think).
I posted more info and pictures about unrealized pre-war Zlin projects (including the
first Z-X and Z-XII !) at a new topic:
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,9787.0.html. Additional info about the postwar projects here:
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,5233.0.html.
