Avia S-199
The Avia S-199 was a Czechoslovak fighter built after the Second World War from the Messerschmitt Bf 109G airframe, re-engined with a Junkers Jumo 211F bomber engine after the stock of Daimler-Benz DB 605s was lost in a 1945 fire. The substitution made it heavy, torque-bound and unpopular, but more than 550 were built; it served Czechoslovakia until 1957 and became the first fighter of the Israeli Air Force in the 1948 war.
Why It Mattered
The S-199 was the first fighter obtained by the Israeli Air Force, bought from Czechoslovakia in defiance of the arms embargo Israel then faced. It existed because the Avia plant, which had produced the Messerschmitt Bf 109G during the war years, still had airframes and parts on hand when production continued after the war. With the Bf 109's Daimler-Benz engine unavailable, the airframe was rebuilt around a Junkers Jumo engine designed for a bomber, and that substitution defined the type. The result handled poorly in the air and on the ground, yet it gave Israel an air arm when no other fighter was available to it, and it became Czechoslovakia's first post-war fighter. More than 550 were built. Surviving airframes preserved in Prague and in Israel keep that improvised beginning on public display.
Design Notes
Avia first continued the Bf 109G itself, as the S-99: about twenty single-seaters and two two-seat CS-99 trainers were completed around the original Daimler-Benz DB 605 engine. In September 1945 the stock of DB 605 engines was lost in a fire at the factory where they were stored, leaving the Junkers Jumo 211F, built for the Heinkel He 111 bomber, as the alternative on hand. The Jumo installation was heavier than the engine it replaced, made less power but far more torque, and drove a large paddle-bladed propeller. That torque pulled the aircraft drastically left and caused many accidents on the ground, and the narrow-tracked landing gear made it prone to ground looping. The centerline nose cannon had to be deleted with the new engine; armament settled as two 13 mm MG 131 machine guns over the engine and one 20 mm MG 151/20 cannon under each wing. The gun synchronizer for the cowling machine guns also proved unreliable, and some Israeli pilots shot off their own propellers. A new bubble hood was later fitted to improve the pilot's view, and the two-seat CS-199 trainer was rebuilt from the single-seat aircraft.
Operational History
The S-199 first flew in March 1947, and production ended in 1949. In Czechoslovak service it equipped the post-war air force and, at the end of its career, the National Security Guard, with the last examples withdrawn in 1957. Israel bought 25 aircraft in 1948, and all but two were eventually delivered. The first four arrived on 20 May 1948, shipped disassembled in transport aircraft, and were assembled to equip 101 Squadron. On 29 May 1948 the four aircraft attacked an Egyptian army column between Isdud and the Ad Halom bridge, south of Tel Aviv, in the type's first combat mission. The Aviationist's account of that mission records minimal material damage and the loss of one aircraft, flown by South African volunteer Eddie Cohen, but also an intercepted Egyptian report of a heavy air attack, after which the column turned east away from Tel Aviv. On 3 June, Modi Alon shot down two Egyptian C-47 transports, the Israeli Air Force's first aerial victories. Israeli S-199s were also credited with victories over the Egyptian Air Force's Spitfires, including one Alon downed on 18 July 1948. Maintenance kept availability low — seldom more than five airworthy at a time — and by the end of October 1948 only six remained operational. Sporadic sorties continued until mid-December 1948; the survivors were decommissioned in 1949 as better fighters replaced them.
Afterlife
Czech pilots nicknamed the type Mezek, "Mule"; in Israel it was officially Sakeen, "knife", although crews more often called it Messer. Three airframes anchor its preservation today, divided between the two countries that operated it. The Kbely Aviation Museum in Prague displays single-seat S-199 UF-25 beside two-seat CS-199 UC-26. In Israel, S-199 D-112 is on static display at the Israeli Air Force Museum at Hatzerim air base. Vintage Aviation News describes Kbely's post-war Avias as the collection's true highlights, beginning with its pair of S-199s on display there.