Hs-129, Winter camo?

As i said before this it's not the factory price. Probably the final price to the customers is at least five times more than Aerostar building price.
Unfortunetly was not Aerostar ideea to build warbirds and the initial investment was from foreign country ( Germany).
But for a romanian IAR 80 that could be build in Aerostar only the initial investment for the prototype can be higher. And after that , the price could go down to max. 100 000 euro for a piece.

Dan.

that sounds great.... mabe sometimes we will see back over skyes our IAR80...
what a lovely day wuld be....

To get back to the topic,
Dobran had a good friend-Lazar Munteanu,who was a 129 pilot.
He was shppt down behind enamy lines 3 times,and was recovered by his mates.
He also made 3 times landing behind the lines to recover mates(including a German laission officer).
Dobran flew with him in the 129 from Roman to Teccuci.In the back of the pilot seat there was enought room for a passager.Dobran enjoyed the ride.
Once he saw a 129 ,who was hit by flak,landing and breaking in two,after tuching the ground.
Munteanu's verdict about the plane was similar as other who flew it;Good visibility,good armour,hight manevrability,but not so good eangines.

C-2 your postings today are very special. Maybe we can hear more details about this special and currageous Romanian pilot of HS-129 in due course of your contacts with Mr Dobran

Alex

Alex, landing Hs129 right in the frontline to save crashlanded pilots was something very commun for 8th Assault Group, many pilots did this and other ARR pilots were talking with high respect about those outstanding men.

PS: I think Marinescu Dumitru also had some 3 landings in enemy lines to pick up downed 129 pilots (not sure on exact number of rescues though).

This post has been edited by D13-th_Mytzu on February 11, 2005 07:32 am

Unfortunatly,I never met a first line 129 pilot...
Munteanu died a few years ago....

I met Marinescu Dumitru some years ago at Baneasa airfield, I was with a very close firend of mine who's grandfather was a pilto in Gr. 7 Vt. and Marinescu remembered of him (probably from the after war meetings like mr. Dobran also did), later I found out that he was the uncle of another friend of ours unfortunatelly last time I asked his nephew mr. Marinescu was very ill.

This post has been edited by D13-th_Mytzu on February 11, 2005 10:36 pm

Thanks Mytzu , it will still be great to hear from them even if the heroism of that HS-129 Sqd was something usual

Alex

I read two books about Hs129 pilots, one written by Marinescu Dumitru "Bat clopotele in gulag" and one written by Corneliu Marandiuc "Cavalerii bimotoarelor de asalt", unfortunatelly I do not own either of those books and I cannot find them in the stores to buy them

Adj. av. Dumitru Marinescu was involved in a very controversial episode on the western front, when his Hs-129 carrying some illegal passengers attempting to defect to the Axis side was shot down by IAR-81Cs of the 2nd Fighter Group. Thus Marinescu ended up as a POW and then a forced labourer (after 1945) in the Soviet Union.

I met Lazar Munteanu many years ago. First at Sinaia, then at his home in Cluj. He was a very humble and jovial man, who told me many interesting stories. He had a great influence upon me in reconsidering the quality of the Hs 129 airplane, until then labelled in west as an unsuccessful type with poor performance. That was the push I needed in accepting to write a book about the Hs 129, published by Squadron/Signal, in the USA.

Gen. Dénes

They were not actually illegal, they were very legal in papers

whats the name of the books you wrote about the HS-129 Denes ?

Al

There are two books: one was published by MBI in Prague, Czech Republic, while the other is titled 'Hs 129 in Action' and was published by Squadron/Signal, in the USA.

Gen. Dénes

Thanks, I will be looking for them

Alex