A Plane With A Porpoise - The L-29 Delfin

Another Jet trainer on display was the Czech Aero Vodochody L-29 Delfin.

Czechoslovakia's first jet design, the L-29 Delfin (dolphin in Czech) was the primary Warsaw Pact jet trainer of the 1960s. A very successful design, with very docile flight characteristics, 3,600 were built over 11 years, which is quite an impressive number for jet production.

With 2 seats, powered with a single turbojet engine, it's got a maximum speed of 353 knots and a 480 nautical mile range.

Here's Abster czeching out the cockpit:

It's again a tight fit but very functional.

Quite a few Delfins are for sale on the civilian market these days, for much less than it's successor, the higher performance and much more aerobatic L-39 Albatross. Another historic warbird from the early jet age.