11/30/2019. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "During the latter part of WW II, the Avia factory at Praque-Cakovice, Czechoslovakia, was assigned the task of assembling Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6 and Bf 109 G-14 single-seat fighters, and Bf 109 G-12 two-seat conversion trainers. With the end of hostilities large stocks of component parts remained intact at the factory and a small series of Bf 109 Gs was completed under the designation S 99, twenty of these being assigned to the National Air Guard.
Lack of Daimler-Benz DB 605 engines led to adaptation of the basic Bf 109 G airframe to take the Junkers Jumo 211F engine, of which large stocks were available. Rated at 1,350 hp for take off and 1,060 hp at 17,390 ft (5,300 m), this engine drove a paddle-bladed VS 11 propeller, and designated S 199, the first example was flown on March 25, 1947. Although the S 199 possessed poor handling characteristics, production was undertaken for the Czech AF which received the first aircraft in February 1948, a total of 551 being produced (including a small number of two-seat CS 199s). Of these, 129 were assembled at the Letov factory at Letnany, production ceasing in 1951. Twenty-five S 199s were exported to Israel in 1948.
Standard armament comprised two 0.787 in (20 mm) cannon beneath the wings and two fuselage-mounted 0.511 in (13 mm) machineguns.
At the end of WW II, the Red Army conquered Prague, and initially the Soviets gave the newly-formed Czechoslovak Republic a relatively large margin of freedom compared to the other Eastern European states. After the communist revolution in late February 1948, the country was increasingly under the influence of the USSR. The numerous repressive measures of the Stalinist rulers led many Czechs and Slovaks to flee to the West, sometimes by air. Civilian and military aircraft were flown to Bavaria several times, especially to airfields in the Munich area.
For such an escape action, the above pictured aircraft was used by Poručík (Lieutenant) František Novak on May 24, 1948. Novak, a member of the letecký pluk 4 (Aviation Regiment 4) took off from the Czech military airfield Planá (near České Budějovice). After a flight of only 142 mls (228 km) he landed on the USAF Air Base Neubiberg, 5 mls (8 km) south of Munich. Here the 86th Fighter Group was based with three squadron, flying the P-47D Thunderbolt.
