This two-seater powered sailplane was developed jointly by VTC of Yugoslavia and Sigmund Flugtechnik of West Germany, under the design leadership of Dipl-lng Alfred Vogt and Dipl-lng Ivan Sostaric. The prototype, registered YU-M6009, made its maiden flight on 24 June 1972 in the hands of VTC test pilot A.Stanojevic; it was certificated in May 1973 and an initial order for 10 was placed by the end of that year. The SSV-17 is a low-wing monoplane of glassfibre sandwich construction with a conventional retractable undercarriage, seating two side-by-side; it resembles the Rumanian IS-28M2, but has a swept-back fin and rudder and a low-set tailplane; the fin spar is of steel tube. The wing has a light alloy main spar and Schempp-Hirth air brakes above and below, but there are no flaps.
The fuselage is a semi-monocoque structure and the fuselage/wing centre section, 6ft 6%in wide, forms the cabin floor and also serves as the wing spar carry-through structure. The main wheels have coil spring shock-absorption and retract upwards into ‘knuckle’ fairings, remaining semi-exposed when retracted to minimise damage in a wheels-up landing. The tailwheel is fixed and steerable. The powerplant is a Franklin 2A-120-A two-cylinder horizontally-opposed engine of 60hp driving a two blade Hoffman propeller; but following the Franklin Engine Co’s cessation of engine manufacture the rights to produce and market this company’s range of air-cooled piston engines was acquired by Pezetel of Poland in 1975, to power such types as the Polish built PZL-110 Rallye. It is believed that only the initial batch of 10 SSV-17s was built.

Span: 55 ft 9.25 in
Length: 23 ft 11.5 in
Height: 9 ft 3.75 in
Wing area: 199.1 sqft
Aspect ratio: 15.65
Empty weight: 943 lb
Max weight: 1,472 lb
Max level speed: 155 mph (power on)
Cruising speed: 99.5 mph (power on)
Best glide ratio: 29:1 (unpowered)
Min sinking speed: 2.79 ft/sec (unpowered)
Take-off run: 820 ft
Range: 497 miles