Ikarus S-49

what is it?

The Ikarus S-49 is a Yugoslav single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft built for the Yugoslav Air Force (Serbo-Croatian: Ratno vazduhoplovstvo i protivvazdušna obrana – RV i PVO) shortly after World War II. Following the Tito–Stalin Split in 1948, the Yugoslav Air Force was left with an aircraft inventory consisting of mostly Soviet aircraft. Unable to acquire new aircraft or spare parts for its existing fleet, they turned to its domestic aviation industry in order to create an indigenous design to fulfill the need for additional aircraft. The result was the S-49A, designed by Kosta Sivčev, Svetozar Popović and Slobodan Zrnić, on the basis of the pre-war Rogožarski IK-3.

🔎How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · 10.3 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 628 km/htop speed
• range 690 kmwithout refuelling
• size 3,568 kgmax take-off weight
• built 158made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 77 years ago, in 1949.
• 🏎️Top speed is 4.8× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 10.3 m: about 2 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🏔️Can fly 1.1× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.

spec sheet

first flight

1949-06

introduced

1950

retired

1961

status

retired

number built

158

role

fighter

makers

Ikarbus

engines

1× Hispano-Suiza 12Z-17

crew

1

length

9.1 m

wingspan

10.3 m

height

2.9 m

max take-off weight

3,568 kg

top speed

628 km/h

range

690 km

ceiling

10,000 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.