Following the end of the
Second World War, Aero continued production of the German
Siebel Si 204 transport and
Bücker Bü 131 Jungmann to keep the factory occupied, while the factory's management showed little interest in developing new designs and planned to diversify into production of non-aviation products like toys and kitchen utensils. In 1945, a team of engineers led by Ondřej Němec and František Vik began work on a design of a four-seat twin-engined light aircraft suitable for use as a business aircraft, and as an
air taxi, which was hoped would be attractive to both domestic and export customers. Work was done without permission of the company management, with the team working in their own time. A reorganisation of the company brought a new technical director at the Aero factory, who authorised production of a prototype, although higher management were still not informed. The prototype construction was well under construction when management finally found out about the Aero 45 and launched an investigation of the authorisation of the prototype, and required that the design calculations were rechecked. The prototype (registered OK-BCA) flew for the first time on 21 July 1947, with the second, registered OK-CCA, flying on 12 March 1948. After a successful programme of flight testing and a series of foreign demonstration tours by the two prototypes, the Aero 45 entered production, with the first production aircraft flying on 16 April 1949. The model number of "45" was not a continuation of
Aero's pre-war numeration scheme, but a reference to the 4/5 seats in the aircraft.
Description The design bears a superficial resemblance, when viewed nose-on, to the much larger German
Siebel Si 204 which, among other German aircraft were produced in Czechoslovakia while under German occupation. The Aero 45 had a sleek, teardrop-shaped
fuselage, with a rounded, extensively-glazed nose affording excellent visibility. It had a low wing on which the engine
nacelles were mounted, and a
conventional tail. The main
undercarriage was retractable but the tailwheel was fixed. ==Operational history==