Today, the name Yugo is famous world-wide for their classic automobiles.
Long forgotten is Yugo's foray into cutting-edge aircraft production decades earlier.
I bet you don't remember that, do you? I almost didn't either.
It all started when the Soviet Union agreed to supply Yugoslavia with MiGs. However, a break between Stalin and Tito caused problems. The enmity between the two great leaders was rumored to have been over a mysterious
femme-fatale at the center of an explosive love triangle.
What this meant for the MiG deal was that the Soviets supplied second-rate engines, an under-powered clone of the Rolls-Royce Mean instead of a clone of the more famous high-performing Nene. The Yugoslavs were sent aircraft unsuitable for modern air combat. A solution had to be found, and fast.
A little re-design was made by adding wing-root intakes and a huge, powerful radial engine, the Yugo-Yunkers Umo Yumo, the most potent piston power plant known inside the Iron Curtain. Mating this with jet propulsion created an aircraft with unique capabilities.
Arming this beast with a license-produced Gatling gun under the nose and partnering it with a 37 m.m. cannon on the other side was true genius. Forced by necessity, the Yugoslavs had created one of the most formidable gun platforms in all of eastern Europe. Adding two more cannons in under-wing pods was simply over-kill, but one can never have too many guns.
While the YugoMiG never saw combat against a foreign foe, the aircraft was a serious deterrent to the Soviets and kept their tanks from rolling into Yugoslavia anytime Stalin was displeased.
The YugoMig soldiered on until finally retired in the mid 1970's when replaced with U.S. supplied Skyhawks. All that remains today of the old cold warrior is this poorly-made Plastikovny model for children age 5 and up.
Whatever happened to the vivacious
femme-fatale that came between the two Communist strong-men is lost to history.
Brian da Basher
