Aero L-39 Albatros

The Aero L-39 Albatros, built 1971-1999 as the Warsaw Pact's replacement for the L-29 and by a wide margin the most common privately owned jet warbird in the United States: an Ivchenko AI-25TL turbofan, 380 knots, ejection seats and docile handling. The L-39C is the trainer, the L-39ZO the weapons trainer with four pylons and the L-39ZA the light attack version with a gun pod.

The variants

MODEL	YEARS	ACTIVE	TAILFAX SCORE	WHAT CHANGED
L-39	1971–1999	63	—	Registry spelling without suffix
L-39C	1971–1999	3	—	Trainer
L-39ZA	1971–1999	25	—	Light attack version with gun pod
L-39ZO	1971–1999	5	—	Weapons trainer, four pylons

Family fleet, active

FAA registry

NTSB events / 1,000, 10 yrs

52.1

5 events over 96 active aircraft, pooled across the family

Data as of: FAA registry Sep 28 · NTSB Oct 2 · scores Sep 30