Related articles

Fighter pilots from Hungary and Sweden flew Gripen jets to the Caslav air base in the Czech Republic ahead of international military exercises entitled Lion Effort underway through May 24. Thailand is also taking part but without its own aircraft. The exercise will mark a decade that Gripen fighter jets have been used to guard Czech airspace. In 2009 and 2011, similar exercises were held in Hungary and Sweden. The Czech air force will also send L-159 light combat planes, Mi-24 assault helicopters, Mi-171 multipurpose helicopters and C-295 CASA transport aircraft to take part. German Eurofighter Typhoons and Polish F-16s will also operate from their home bases. The military exercises will wrap-up with an air show and an open doors day at the base.

Countries of the Visegrad Four, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland, need closer cooperation in protecting their common airspace, the countries’ defence ministers agreed on Thursday at a meeting in Tomášov, near Bratislava. The prime ministers of the V4 countries are set to meet in June discuss the Common Sky project. The Slovak Defence Minister Martin Glvac said Slovakia and the Czech Republic have already agreed on the protection of their common airspace. According to Czech Defense Minister Martin Stropnický, cooperation in air defence is crucial. The ministers also discussed a joint military force that should be operational by 2016.

The biggest museum of aviation in the Czech Republic opened in Mladá Boleslav on Sunday. It has a collection of 25 historical planes and is named after Metoděj Vlach, who built the first Czech plane – powered by a car motor – in the town in 1912. The museum’s construction took three years and cost the Central Bohemia region over CZK 170 million.

Two stunt aircraft from the Czech aerobatics team, the Flying Bulls, collided with each other during a mid-air performance in India. Although both aircraft were damaged, the planes were able to land and there were no injuries. The leader of the team, sponsored by Red Bull, is the woman pilot Radka Máchová with the other pilots also Czechs. She was reported by local media to be one of the pilots involved in the incident. The accident happened at the Air India show being staged at Banagalore with performances interrupted for 90 minutes as a result. Czech Minister of Defence Martin Stropnický was due to visit the air show as part of his current visit to India.

The popularity of drones, formerly used almost exclusively by the military, has reached new heights and as this state of the art technology becomes more easily affordable hundreds of them are flying over the Czech Republic –with or without the required license.

The new Pardubice city council says it does not want to abandon the idea of building a monument on the town’s main square to the Czech aviation pioneer Jan Kašpar. Plans to build the town’s famous aviator a monument were shelved by the former administration after the winning entry proved too expensive for the town’s coffers. The new administration says it will meet with the winner of the tender for fresh talks.

In 1911 Kašpar undertook a successful long-distance flight from Pardubice to Prague in a retrofitted single-engine monoplane, bought from Louis Bleriot after the Frenchman’s successful flight over the English Channel. Kašpar flew his plane at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour covering the 120 km distance from Pardubice to Prague in 1 hour and 32 minutes.

The Czech Army is planning to expand its special forces and will invest tens of millions of crowns into a new logistics unit and air squadron, the chief of staff of the armed forces, General Petr Pavel, told Czech Television. The new logistics unit counting 200 men will serve the special forces in Prostejov which are deployed in foreign missions. Czech troops are currently serving in Afghanistan, Mali and the Balkans.

A Czech delegation headed by Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and Industry and Trade Jan Mládek headed for a summit of central and eastern European countries as well as China in Belgrade was delayed on Monday evening when the government A319 suffered technical problems and was grounded. The plane was to have taken off from Prague’s Kbely airport at 8:30 PM. A replacement was founded in the Czech Army’s Challenger, a smaller plane which made the flight. It is expected the repaired A319 will fly empty to Belgrade ahead of the end of the one-day summit, to bring the premier and others back to Prague later on Tuesday.

The unique CV-22B Osprey aircraft landed at the Mošnov international airport in Ostrava on Friday. The unique half-helicopter half-plane, used by the US Air Force special forces, will be displayed at the annual NATO Days and Czech Air Force Days air show, which will get underway in Ostrava on Saturday. Thousands of visitors are expected to attend the two-day event.

Prague’s Václav Havel International Airport will undergo a makeover of one of its key areas and terminals to be able to accommodate giant Airbus A380s. In the past the plane has landed three times at the airport but regular flights, to begin from Seoul next summer, would stretch the airport beyond its capacity and would threaten delays. The airport plans to see renovation at the cost of 154 million crowns to be complete ahead of next summer.