Letov Š-328

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Letov Š-328
Type	Reconnaissance aircraft
Manufacturer	Letov Kbely in Prague
Primary user	Czechoslovakian Air Force
Number built	470

The Letov Š-328 was a Czechoslovak single-engined, two-seat reconnaissance aircraft. It was manufactured by Letov Kbely.

[edit] History

Design work started in 1932 to meet a requirement from the Finnish Air Force although the Finn's never accepted the type. It first flew in 1934 and began equipping the Czech Air Force the following year. The machine was made in two versions—with wheeled undercarriage for land use and with floats for water operations. Although Czechoslovakia was a land locked nation, the float variant flew off lakes and rivers. The historical records of Czechoslovakian aircraft of the 1930s and of World War II are meager, so not a great deal is known about this machine or its operational career except that it functioned as a reconnaissance aircraft for the Czech Air Force during the mid and late 1930s and in that same role during the early months of World War II, when the Czech Air Force was under German control following its occupation of Czechoslovakia in March of 1939. The Letov Š-328's combat record is vague but it appears that a few of the land variants may have been operational during the Spanish Civil War and that the Germans handed over numbers of these machines to their allies, Bulgaria, and Slovakia, who used them operationally. It is known that some of the Slovakian aircraft were seized by Slovak insurgents and actually flown against the Germans in late 1944.

[edit] Operators

[edit] Specifications (Š-328 Smolik)

General characteristics

Crew: 2
Length: 10.34 m (33 ft 11 in)
Wingspan: 13.69 m (44 ft 11 in)
Height: 3.38 m (11 ft 1 in)
Wing area: 722 sq ft (67.10 m²)
Empty weight: 1,680 kg (3,704 lb)
Loaded weight: 2,640 kg (5,820 lb)
Powerplant: 1× Walter-built Bristol Pegasus II.M-2 , 9-cylinder, air-cooled radial piston engine, 485 kW (650 hp)