The PTO-4 was an Estonian-designed military training aircraft of World War II.
In 1938, the Estonian aviation engineers Voldemar Post, Rein Tooma and Otto Org, previously responsible for the PON-1 trainer, designed and built the PTO-4 training aircraft.
[Gerdessen 1982, p.71.] It was a two-seat low-winged monoplane powered by a De Havilland Gypsy of 120 hp, with a fixed undercarriage that could be fitted with wheels or skis. The aircraft could fly at a maximum speed of 245 km per hour and had a ceiling of 5,000 meters. On 12 October 1938, the PTO-4 was taken into service of the Air Force.
The Estonian Air Force received two PTO-4s (serial numbers ''161'' and ''162''), one with an open cockpit and the other an enclosed cockpit.
Six examples were in civil use,
of which five were used by the ''Eesti Aeroklubi'' (EAK), a flying club controlled by the Estonian Military.
Four examples surviving from the Soviet occupation of Estonia (1940–41) were operated by the German Luftwaffe, being operated by a unit manned by Estonian volunteers (initially called ''Sonderstaffel Buschmann'' and later 1./SAGr.127) based at Tallinn Airport, Reval-Ülemiste airfield. They were operated as training and liaison aircraft as well for coastal patrol over the shores of the Baltic Sea, Baltic.
[Gerdessen 1982, pp.74–75.]
Operators
;
*Estonian Air Force
;
*Luftwaffe
See also
References
*Gerdessen, F. "Estonian Air Power 1918–1945". ''Air Enthusiast'', Eighteen, April – July 1982. Bromley, UK:Pilot Press. pp. 61–76.
External links
Estonian Postage Stamp
Aircraft manufactured in Estonia, PTO-4
World War II trainer aircraft
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Low-wing aircraft
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