Let L-610

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The Czech L 610 aircraft

The Let L 610 is a prototype aircraft for the Czech civil aircraft manufacturer Let Kunovice.

[edit] History

Its history started in late 70's, when, after success of LET L-410 twin engine turboprop, the main Soviet airline Aeroflot requested LET factory to design a replacement for Antonov An-24 airplanes.

LET's L 610 was designed as a twin engine turboprop aircraft powered by the new Czech engines, Motorlet M 602, with seating capacity of 40. Regrettably the historical fact that engine development always takes a greater length of time than airframe development was not taken into consideration. Eventually the 1358kW (1822shp) Motorlet M 602 turboprops engines were finished and the aircraft first flew on Dec 28, 1988. No aircraft was ever delivered to any customer, even 1 aircraft was shown in AEROFLOT marking during Paris airshow in 90ties.

After the Soviet collapse LET tried to westernize the plane in order to widen the plane's sales appeal. The result was a new model, known as the L 610G, which had General Electric CT-7 engines, Collins Pro Line II digital EFIS avionics, Collins weather radar and autopilot. The L 610G prototype flew its maiden voyage on December 18, 1992; four years after the L 610M.

The choice of GE CT-7 engines, was not suitable for such category of aircraft, which was originally intended for the Pratt & Whitney PW 100 family engines. This engine choice only increased delay of the project leading to its final rejection during the beginning of 2006 by the new owners of LET factory.

During the time that the now-defunct Ayres Corp owned LET, the plane was also known as the Ayres L-610, and for a time was marketed as the Ayres 7000. The launch customer for the Ayres 7000 was to have been City Connexion before bankruptcy problems sidelined the program.