Planes and Choppers Photos

Aero Vodochody began life as Aero Tovarna Letadel, a company established in 1919, initially to build Phönix fighters under licence. It then built, mainly under the direction of Ing. Husak, a long series of indigenous designs, including civil transports, fighters and bombers.After WW2, Czech industry was nationalized and light twin aircraft were marketed under the Aero name. In 1953 a large government factory was set up at Vodochody, outside Prague and called Aero Vodochody Narodni Podnik. Jet trainers and attck aircraft were produced in large numbers from there. The state-owned company became Aero Czechoslovak (later Czech and Slovak) Aerospace Industry Ltd., a joint-stock management group in 1991. Boeing controlled the company from 1998 to 2004, but a Czech-Slovak investment group, Penta Investments, bought it in 2006. It now produces sub-assemblies for such companies as Sikorsky, Alenia and Embraer.