Ikarbus

, pilot and co-founder of the company On 13 October 1923, the company was established under name "Ikarus – the first Serbian airplane, car and engine industry Kovačević and Co", with headquarters in Novi Sad. The founders were Dimitrije Konjović, brothers Dušan and Milivoj Kovačević, Đoka Radulović and Josif Mikl. On 20 November 1923, "Ikarus" started business officially after the registration before the Novi Sad District Court. In the beginning, the company manufactured a number of foreign designs under licence, such as the French Potez 25, Czechoslovak Avia BH-33 and English Hawker Fury; Bristol Blenheim as well as the locally designed Ikarus ŠM, Ikarus IO, SIM-VIII, Ikarus IK-2 and Ikarus Orkan. On 3 March 1924, the first school type airplane "Brandenburg" was manufactured. Since then, the new majority owner of the company is officially the Chinese "Green Stone Investment Co.". However, there are concerns for the fate of Ikarbus, as production or reactivation of the facility in Zemun is still uncertain. ==Products==

Every vehicle made by Ikarbus has a name starting with 'IK', followed by a hyphen and then the vehicle's code: IK-1xxs are solo city buses, IK-2xxs are articulated city buses and IK-3xxs and IK-4xxs are coaches. Earlier IK 160(P)/161/166 models are also articulated buses. The letter N disambiguates integral models from non-integral ones. The last produced models under Ikarbus brand were: • IK-103 solo, MAN or Mercedes engine • IK-103 CNG (meets EURO-5 standards) • IK-107 minibus, Cummins engine • IK-112M, MAN NL 323 chassis • IK-112N solo low floor, MAN engine • IK-112LE, Mercedes-Benz OC 500 LE chassis • IK-206 articulated, vertical MAN engine • IK-218N articulated low floor, MAN engine • IK-218M articulated low floor, MAN NG 363 chassis • IK-308, midibus coach • IK-312, regional coach • IK-412, long-distance coach • IK-415, three-axle coach Historical Aircraft fighter plane on display at Belgrade Aviation Museum primary trainer plane on display at Belgrade Aviation Museum In 1927 an aeronautical section of the factory was found in Zemun where numerous planes were designed and manufactured, as well as under license. The factory included its own airfield. After the end of the World War II, in 1946, another two aeronautical companies, Zmaj and Rogožarski joined Ikarus as a wholly nationalised state aircraft industry. The Ikarus factory had manufactured in its workshops 475 aircraft up until 1962, when it stopped working for the aviation industry. Buses The historical models under Ikarus brand are: • IK-4 (solo bus based on Leyland chassis, produced in the early 1970s) • IK-5A / IK-5B (solo and articulated based on MAN Metrobus (de) license, produced in 1972-1981) • IK-61 (solo, Raba D2156 engine, manual transmission) produced in the 1970s • IK-83 (solo, FAP chassis, FAMOS 2 F-207 engine, manual transmission) produced in the 1970s • IK-102 (solo, MAN D2866 engine, automatic VOITH transmission) produced until 1996 • IK-105 / IK-108 / IK-110B / IK-115 (solo, Raba D2156 engine, manual transmission) produced until 1988 • IK-111B (solo, MAN D2866 engine, manual transmission) produced until 1996 • IK-160B / IK-180 (articulated, Raba D2156 engine, manual transmission) produced until 1988 • IK-160P (articulated, SW680 engine ) produced for the Polish market until 1989 • IK-161B (articulated, MAN D2866 engine, manual transmission) produced until 1996 • IK-161R (articulated, Raba D2156 engine, manual transmission) produced until 1996 • IK-166 (articulated, MAN D2866 engine, automatic VOITH transmission) produced until 1996 The historical models under Ikarbus brand are: • IK-101 (solo, MAN engine) • IK-102 (solo, RABA engine) • IK-201 (articulated, horizontal MAN engine) • IK-202 (articulated, horizontal RABA engine) • IK-203 (articulated, horizontal Mercedes engine) ==See also==