Aero L-29, part three, Czech and East German users

The Aero L-29 was a jet-powered aircraft which featured a straightforward and simple design and construction. It used a mid wing with a T-tail arrangement. Wings were unswept and air intakes were placed at the wing roots. Undercarriage was reinforced and able of withstand considerable amount of stress. It was relatively unpowered but even yet, it showed many favourable characteristics in its flight performance, like handling ease. The primary flying controls were manually operated and both flaps and airbrakes were actuated using hydraulic systems.
Most of the aircraft were powered by the Czech-designed Motorlet M-701 engine which delivered 1960lb of thrust (8,7kN). Between 1961 and 1968 approximately 9250 engines were completed and no less than 5000 of them were destinated to the L-29. The student and the instructor were placed in a tandem layout underneath separate canopies with the instructor's position placed in a slightly position to better oversee the student. Both posts were provided with ejection seats which were interlinked to fire in a synchronised manner to avoid any possibility of mid-air collision between the two ejector seats.
During the mid 1990s many were sold to private owners to use them in the private civil sector with many technical changes like the removal of military related equipment such as gunsights, the replacement of avionics with western-made ones and so on.
As we said previously, the Aero L-29 was the main trainer of the Czechoslovak Air Force since the 1960s and it was kept in active use, together with the Aero L-39, until the mid-1990s when it was withdrawn from service and many of them were sold to private owners to use them in aerial shows. The type also served with the East-German Luftwaffe from the mid-1960s until the late 1980s when it was withdrawn from service.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_L-29_Delfín
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Forces_of_the_National_People%27s_Army
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovak_Air_Force