AERO 137 Aero L-39MS, L-59 & L-139 (2026)

When Aero Vodochody is mentioned, most of the aviation world immediately thinks of the elegant L-39 Albatros, the most widely used jet trainer in the world. This booklet instead focuses on its direct successors, the L-39MS, its export version L-59 and the L-139 prototype, which continued the design heritage and naming of the famous aircraft. They were developed when it became clear that the original L-39 could not provide sufficiently effective training for new combat aircraft without major modernisation. The L-39MS and L-59 were designed as thorough upgrades of the L-39, while the L-139 was a more modest version using the same airframe with more modern Western components. The L-39MS, L-59 and L-139 prototype are among the least documented Czechoslovak aircraft types, mainly because their limited distribution did not allow their qualities to become widely known and left little information about their operational use. Even so, they can be regarded as the most successful Czechoslovak training aircraft in terms of performance-to-price ratio in their era. The shape of the L-39MS shows how successfully the L-39s form and construction were optimised, while its new engine and increased thrust made full use of the potential of the legendary design by Ing. Jan Vlek. It is unfortunate for the aviation industry that these aircraft appeared during a worldwide decline in military spending, when history and political maps were being rewritten, and that the early introduction of the L-39MS and L-59 was affected by problems in Egypt that cast a shadow over the entire family. In neighbouring Tunisia, however, the technically identical model served for two decades without significant problems.