Zlín Z-43 (c/n 0102, OK-WOI), exhibited at static display of Den ve vzduchu air show, Plasy, April 2025.
In the early 1960s, the Czechoslovak aviation plant in Otrokovice, then named Moravan, národní podnik (Moravan state-owned company), began development of new aircraft family, initially designated Z-40. The basic idea behind that project was not only to build a successor to the series of training and aerobatic aeroplanes known as Zlín Trenér, but to create a series of aircraft based on the same construction and shared most of their parts. However, the particular aeroplanes from the new family had to be tailored for a broad range of applications – basic training, aerobatics, touring, agricultural, cargo, ambulance and aerotaxi.
In 1965, the Moravan construction team, led by engr. Jan Mikula, began its work on the first two aircraft from the new family, designated Z-42 and Z-43.
Prototype of the Z-42 training aircraft was completed as the first and performed its maiden flight on 17th October 1967. It was a low-wing monoplane equipped with fixed tricycle undercarriage, two seats in side-by-side configuration and single 180 hp Avia M-137 engine.
Development of the Z-43 was finalised about a year later. The aeroplane was intended not only for training purposes it was also designed as a touring aircraft. Therefore, it was equipped with four-seat cockpit and more powerful Avia M-337 engine, generating 210 hp. Prototype of the Z-43 performed its maiden flight on 10th December 1968.
The first two aircraft of the Z-40 family never achieved the same popularity as the Trenér series. Most probably, the main reason was the need to achieve a certain level of compromise to create the unified construction that could be a base for wide range of variants. In the result, the Z-42 and Z-43 aircraft were characterised by a larger, more comfortable cockpit, providing better visibility, and tricycle undercarriage but, at the same time, their aerobatic performance was a lot worse.
Eventually, the Z-42 remained in serial production for just a decade, with approximately 180 examples of the aircraft built. The four-seat variant was even less popular, and manufacturing of the Z-43 was ceased in 1977, with only 80 aeroplanes built.
The development of further variants of the Z-40 aircraft was abandoned just as quickly. In 1973, one of the Z-43 prototypes was re-built for air ambulance. Next year, the aeroplane successfully performed its maiden flight but never went beyond the prototype stage.
At the end of the 1970s, the Z-42/43 were succeeded by a modernised variant of the aircraft. Designated Z-142, the new aircraft was partially a merge of its predecessors – taking the best solutions from both aeroplanes – but, in addition, featured a new, modernised airframe.
The Z-142 achieved success on the market, with more than 400 examples built. Although, it was still much less than the Trenér family, with more than 1500 aeroplanes manufactured. In 1992, the Z-142 was succeeded by next generation variant of the aircraft, the Z-242, powered by six-cylinder Lycoming O-540 engine. In the same year, the four-seat variant of the aeroplane, designated Z-143, was introduced.
The Z-43 OK-WOI, featured within our Photo of the Week series, is part of Centrum leteckého výcviku (Flight Training Centre – CLV) fleet and is being used there for additional training purposes.
