UTVA, Fabrica Aviona

Jugoslavia / Serbia

Utva Aircraft Industry (commonly known as UTVA) is a manufacturer of general aviation aircraft, located in Pančevo, Serbia. Utva in Serbian is the Ruddy Shelduck.

Utva was founded on 5 June 1937 in Zemun (a small town in former Austrohungarian empire), and produced simple gliders. In 1939 Utva began manufacturing light piston engine aircraft.

Four out of five Yugoslav aircraft plants were in close proximity to each other, built in and around Belgrade: Ikarus, Rogožarski, Zmaj and Utva. The fifth one was DFA (Državna Fabrika Aviona – State Aircraft Factory) which was located in Kraljevo. The plant was relocated to Pančevo (a town a few kilometers away from Belgrade, in Vojvodina autonomous province) in 1940. Until the April war, it mainly produced light gliders but it also produced 148 Bucker Jungmann Bu-131D-2 training planes and one acrobatic Bucker Jungmaister Bu-133. The plant escaped the devastation of the other aircraft plants (Ikarus, Rogožarski and Zmaj) and began producing it’s prewar gliders Čavka (Daw) and Ždral (Crane – the bird) and school airplanes Trojka (Three) and Aero 3. Utva also built a lot of Ikarus designs, notably the 212 and 213 models.

Utva produced light utility aircraft, including the Utva 56 four-seater, first flown in 1956, and thereafter developed through a number of U60 air-taxi/tourer/freight/agricultural/ ambulance and floatplane versions. The Utva 65 was originally an agricultural aircraft, developed as the U66 to serve various utility roles and including the armed U66V version. The Utva 75 two-seat trainer/glider-tug/agricultural aircraft entered production in late 1970s. Lasta 1 tandem two-seat piston-engined trainer first flew September 1985 but was superseded before production by the design of the refined Lasta 2. Development started of Utva 95 agricultural aircraft, probably based on Utva 75. Formerly fabricated components for the IAR-93/J-22 Orao and Super Galeb programmes, and produced items for various Boeing airliners.

During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, the factory was bombed several times and severely damaged.

The factory was heavily bombarded in 1999 and certain parts of it were still off limits due to the unexploded ordnance in 2012. All five original lasta 95 prototypes were destroyed in the factory and the only existing Supergaleb G4MD prototype was lightly damaged. 2012 was back to the basics for Utva. The plant produced Lasta 95 basic trainer and was developing Kobac (sparrow hawk) light COIN aircraft (first flight is expected in 2013).

In 2011, Utva Pančevo was a public company with the headquaters in Pančevo, Serbia, serving 301 employees.