Our History

		The History...
		Of the state company Letecké opravovne Trenčín goes back to the year 1919 and is nearly connected to the merge of the aircraft workshops located in town Nitra.When in 1940 the new aviation facilities in town Treneín were constructed, the workshops were moved to Trenčín.In 1943, the facilities of the Company were handed over to the First Slovak Aircraft Factory and later on became the possesion of the German company Flugzughaus A. G. Weser - Bremen.	The facilities in Trenčín were rebuilt in 1949 and after a short period being a Transportation Means Factory, it became a foundation for future "Letecké opravovne".On 1st January 1954, the Company was renamed to "Opravny Trenčín", finished up the overhauls of aircraft´s C-2 and introduced the maintenance of sport plane Z-381, training planes Z-26 Trend, C-104 Bücker, Z-22 Junák, Jak-11 and tourist planes Ae-45.
The end of the 50-ties brought more tasks and the number of employees went up to 400 resulting also in the rise of capital investment with the goal to extend the production of facilities. Since 1st October 1959, the Company has been named as "Letecké opravovne Trenčín".

The 60-ties started with the develepment of capacities. In 1963 the Company established its own apprentice training centre for the specialties as aircraft mechanic and radio specialist. The maintence of L-200 Morava was provided for soviet Aeroflot, in series of 90 pcs per year. The range of repairs was enriched by new equipment as Mi-1 and Mi-4 Helicopters, aircraft Z-326 Trener Master , Z-37 Čmelák and L-13 Blaník Glider. The new offer also included the ground support equipment maintenance. The Company opened up the Control-Measure Center, nowadays Metrology laboratoires, which is one of the biggest in the Slovak Republic. The year 1969 witnessed the preparation for Mi-8 Helicopter Maintenance.

	The year 1971 started up the jet era. The new training aircraft L-29 Dolphin appeared on the scene, following L-39 Albatros next years.		For the 50 years of existence, the Company started the cooperation with more than 40 countries and for foreign customers repaired the models Jak-11, L-200, L-29, L-410, MiG-23 or Su-22.
The Company carried out the series of modernization of previous type and the special adjustment for acrobatic group "Biele Albatrosy" - White Albatrosses. Since 1974, the Company repairs the turbo-propelled aicraft L-410, for domestic and foreign customers, later the attack aircraft Su-25K (UBK) and since 1991 the Company has managed to maintain the tactical bomber MiG-23BN (UB), which after the split of the Czechoslovak Federative Republik, fell under the Czech Airforce. Letecké opravovne Trenčín, as a state company, were founded by the Federal Ministry of Defence of the Czechoslovak Federative Republic in 1986 and the succession of the status state company was also recognize by the Ministry of Defence of the Slovak Republic. After the declaration of the Slovak Republic, January 1, 1993, the Company began to maintain the Supersonic aircraft Su-22M4 (22UM3K), combat helicopters Mi-24. Some MiG- 21MF (UM) were modernized. In 1996, that time the most modern aircraft of the Slovak Airforce -MiG-29 - entered the assembly halls of the Company. The 7 MiG-29´s were equiped by the avionics, which was compatible with NATO aircraft. Just recently, the first MiG-29, No. 4401 left the assembly hall after the general overhaul executed.			As the results of the international cooperation we can name the provision of the service for the selected radionavigational means of the companies Becker, Allied Signal, Bendix-King, Collins, Scan Avionics.

			Nowadays, the Company makes the effort to open up the cooperation with the company Eurocopter Bo-105, or on the possible finalization of the helicopter Ecureuil AS-350 (355), EC-135.
For the future, the Company wants to maintain the orientation towards the universality and multi range diversity, to keep the tasks for the Slovak Army as a priority and legally remain as a state company. The very important feature of the Company´s policy is high flexibility in meeting the requirements of foreign markets, as an example can be point out the return to the maintenance of the older models (L-29, L-39).