Mexico and Turkey Interested in Aircraft Made by Utva Pancevo – Production of Sova with Diesel Engine Also Planned

After six years of development and testing and only several months after the obtaining of the type-certificate (homologation document), the new product of Utva Pancevo, the Sova aircraft, has successfully entered the international market and will soon operate within the Mexican airspace. The first buyer of this single-engine plane, a modernized version of UTVA-75, has bought the plane variety with the petrol engine Lycoming of a lux variety, and the aircraft, according to Aleksandar Petrovic, Head of Development and Design, will be listed in the civil aviation register of Mexico.

– It is interesting that the buyers chose our Sova after the plane was tested in flight, which gives us satisfaction that we have made a good product. This will be the crown of the certification job, which Utva did together with the Civil Aviation Directorate of the Republic of Serbia. We are thereby also showing that the legislation in the domain of the certification of the civil aircraft of the Republic of Serbia is good and recognized by other members of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) – Petrovic emphasizes and adds that the Pancevo aircraft factory is also actively working on designing a Sove plane with a diesel engine, and that the business plan in the development domain for 2024 includes the certification of that new product.

The development of this airplane was incited, they say at the factory, by the interest and the demands of a famous customer from Turkey.

– Next year, we expect to penetrate that market as well. The plane that we are making for the famous customer in Turkey will have similar performances to those of the Sova with a petrol engine, except that it will use a different type of fuel, JET-A1 or diesel fuel, and its consumption will nearly halve in that variety. Such characteristics of our plane are very important for the users, such as aviation schools and sports clubs, for which the price of exploitation is what’s most important in choosing the aircraft. They are looking for planes which consume less fuel, but also have a less negative environmental impact – it is pointed out for the Politika daily by Aleksandar Petrovic, Head of Development and Design at Utva, a company which finally got a type-certificate four and a half decades after the previous one, confirming that Sova meets all the aviation safety standards and technical requirements.

This single-engine, low-wing airplane, with a semi-monocoque metal fuselage, with four seats with a side-by-side configuration in two rows, and a fixed landing gear, is suitable for the initial training and selection of pilots, air taxi services, sports aviation, tourism. Sova has a cabin 120 centimeters (47 inches) wide, adjustable seats, pedals for the pilot and the student/copilot, and plenty of space for the passengers, so it can be used for reconnaissance and photographing from the air, but also for carrying light or demonstration arms, with the installation of suitable equipment. At the moment when Utva Pancevo is celebrating its 86th anniversary, in addition to the teams of engineers, technicians and mechanics, the sales sector is working actively as well, on selling the Lasta aircraft.

– Next year, we expect the sales to be successful, because everything that has been achieved so far is the culmination of the planning and work in the past several years, since Utva was taken over by Jugoimport SDPR. Utva – Avio Industrija is nowadays an example for how to do business and achieve goals, and satisfying the customers’ demands is high on its list of priorities, which is also the policy of Utva – concludes Aleksandar Petrovic.

UTVA-ALUMINIJUM

Jugoimport-SDPR Beograd

Direktorat civilnog vazduhoplovstva Srbije

Utva Pančevo

Jugoimport SDPR

Civil Aviation Directorate of the Republic of Serbia

International Civil Aviation Organization

ICAO

Aleksandar Petrović

Sova aircraft

UTVA 75

Lycoming

Sova airplane