Zlín Z 43


The Zlín Z 43 is a Czech four-seat light aircraft. A development of the two-seat Zlín Z 42, it is a low-wing monoplane. A developed version, the Zlín Z 143, remains in production.

Design and development

After successful production of the Z-26 aircraft family, the Czechoslovak aircraft manufacturer Moravan, began design of a new series of training aircraft, known as the Z-40 family. Unlike the previous tandem-seat aircraft, the Z-40 family featured a side-by-side cockpit. It was available in two basic variants, a two-seat trainer, the Zlín Z-42, and a four-seat aircraft, the Zlin Z-43 capable of being used both as a trainer and a tourer.
The resulting design is a single-engined low-wing monoplane of all-metal construction and a fixed nosewheel undercarriage. The Z 43 shares 80% of its structure with the Z 42, but is fitted with a revised fuselage accommodating a four-seater cabin and a more powerful engine. The Z-43's wings are of greater span and do not have the slight forward sweep of the Z- 42.
The Z-43 first flew on 10 December 1968, with production starting in 1972. It proved less popular than its two-seat contemporary, and production ended in 1992 after 114 series aircraft plus two prototypes were built in 4 series.
The Z-143 is a version introduced in 1992, powered by a six-cylinder Lycoming O-540 engine, in parallel to the Z-42 being re-engined with a Lycoming to become the Z-242.

Variants

;Zlín Z-43
;Zlín Z-43L
;Zlín Z-43M
;Zlín Z-143
;Aeronautical Manufacturing Enterprise Safir-43

Use by the LTTE

Pictures released by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's Air Tigers indicate that they modified Z 143s to carry four bombs mounted on the undercarriage.
The Air Tigers carried out a suicide air raid on Colombo on 20 February 2009 using two of these aircraft. Under heavy anti-aircraft fire, one of these aircraft crashed into the Sri Lanka Inland Revenue Department building in Colombo. The other craft was shot down near Sri Lanka Air Force Base at Katunayake.

Operators

Civil operators

  • Hungarian Police - 1 aircraft, crashed into Lake Balaton some weeks after delivery in 1976.

    Military operators

  • Algerian Air Force
  • Cuban Air Force
  • Luftstreitkräfte
  • Hungarian Air Force
  • North Macedonia Air Brigade
; Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
  • Air Tigers

    Specifications (Z 43)