By Pierre Charlebois
On the brink of World War II the Yugoslav aircraft industry produced two outstanding ighter designs with the high wing Ikarus IK-2 and the low wing and retractable undercarriage Rogozarski IK-3. Both had Hispano-Suiza or licensed made 12Y engines developing 860 and 920hp, bringing max speeds of 435km/h and 535km/h at 3,100 and 5,000 meters respectively. Armament consisted of an engine mounted 20mm canon and two 7.92mm machine guns, although some IK-2 had the canon removed. The pilots found the IK-3 to be more manoeuvrable than the Hurricane MK I and BF 109E also lying for the Royal Yugoslavia Air Force. About sixteen IK-2s and IK-3s were serviceable at the time the German armed forces invaded Yugoslavia in April 1941. During the brief war, their valiant resistance accounted for thirty ive kills, a dozen brought down by pilots lying Yugoslavia made ighters. A number of IK-2s went to ly for the newly created Croatian Air Force. Sadly, no aircraft survived the war.
Two or three IK-3s were believed to have been captured and tested by the Germans. However the picture of an aircraft coded 5+7 is obviously a fake forged from a horizontally reversed winter 1939-40 photograph. Also dubious is the image of an aircraft coded CL+Li, missing the top of the Balkenkreuz and bad code alignment, which raises doubts about a third coded GP+IK and supposedly tested at Rechlin. Doubtful at best until new evidence comes to light.
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October 2017
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