In practice, the aircraft was more often called Messerschmitt or Messer (which also means 'knife', in German and Yiddish).Īvia continued building Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6s after the war under the Avia S-99 name, at two aircraft factories in Czechoslovakia: one of them officially called závod Avia ( Avia Plant) (1946–48) and závod Avia-Jiřího Dimitrova (Avia-George Dimitroff-Plant, 1948–49) in Čakovice near Prague, as a postwar corporative part of the Automobilové závody, n.p. Czechoslovak pilots nicknamed it Mezek ('Mule'), while in Israel it was officially known as the Sakeen ('knife' in Hebrew).
It is notable as the first fighter obtained by the Israeli Air Force, and used during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.Ĭonstructed in Czechoslovakia, with parts and plans left over from Luftwaffe aircraft production, the aircraft had numerous problems and was generally unpopular with its pilots. The Avia S-199 is a propeller-driven Messerschmitt Bf 109G-based fighter aircraft built after World War II utilizing the Bf 109G airframe and a Junkers Jumo 211F engine in place of the original and unavailable Daimler-Benz DB 605 engine. Avia S-199 at Muzeyon Heyl ha-Avir, Hatzerim, Israel
