© Peter Menner
‘Jackpot’ for German aircraft collector Ernest Mika, who has been able to obtain at least twenty Heliopolis Gomhouria trainers in Egypt. The Gomhouria is an Egyptian, license built version of the Czechoslovak Zlin Z.381, which itself is a development of the wartime German Bücker Bü181 Bestmann.
The Heliopolis factories produced over 300 of these Gomhourias, a large proportion of which were used by the Al-Quwwat al-Jawwiya al-Misriya (Egypt Air Force). For as far as Scramble is aware, the Gomhouria was already withdrawn from use decades ago.
The spectacular deal is follow-up on an earlier import of four Gomhourias, spare engines and parts that Ernest Mika finalized in 2011.
In the following years further import became impossible, not only because of Egypt's political instability but also by the COVID pandemic. But when the situation had calmed down, the deal finally worked out.
By mid-January the first containerized aircraft of the new batch seem to have arrived in Germany. Four of them have already been sold: two Gomhourias went to the Bücker Museum in Switzerland and another two to members of the Fliegerstadl club in Bavaria.
Ernest Mika is said to have an inherited passion for Bückers. Mika sr. purchased one of the then imported Gomhourias more than three decades ago and flew it for a while. At that time, a lifelong friendship developed with some Egyptian technicians and pilots, which made the import that has now taken place possible.
Maak jouw eigen website met JouwWeb