Product Description

- The IAR-80 was a Romanian fighter plane developed by the Romanian IAR Brasov factory and used by the Romanian Air Force. It was the Romanian's first monoplane fighter.
- In the second half of the 1930s, the Romanian Air Force modernised its forces by license-building the Polish P.24E fighter.
- Meanwhile, in response to the rapidly changing situation in Europe, in 1938 the Romanian Air Force asked IAR to develop a new fighter based on the P.24E, which was being produced under license.
- IAR used the P.24E airframe and a 14K engine produced under license by Gnome & Aune, and completed a prototype in late 1940.
- After flight tests, the prototype, designated IAR-80, was adopted by the Romanian Air Force, with production deliveries beginning in December 1941, just three years after development began.
- The Romanian military participated in Operation Barbarossa, which began in June 1941, along with the German Wehrmacht. However, due to the difficulties in maintaining their air forces due to the obsolescence of their aircraft and the mixture of a wide variety of aircraft, only the Romanian Air Force aircraft were withdrawn to their home country in December.
- The Romanian Air Force, now refitted with IAR-80s and the newly acquired Bf 109Es, once again participated in the campaign against the Soviet Union, enjoying some success in ground attacks and air superiority until the arrival of the Yak-9s and La-5s in the Red Air Force.
- In the summer of 1943, around 60 IAR-80s were deployed to defend the capital Bucharest and Ploieşti, the largest oil region in Eastern Europe.



Item Size/Weight : 30 x 20 x 4.7 cm / 227g

Product Specifications

Country

Romania

Item code

PB72564

JAN code

4544032899738

Purchase Information