Ikarbus IK-2

Overview

The Ikarus IK-2 was a 1930s high-wing, single-seat, monoplane fighter aircraft of Yugoslav design built for the Royal Yugoslav Army Air Force. The IK-2 was designed by French-trained engineers Kosta Sivčev and Ljubomir Ilić, who saw the desirability of developing a home-grown aircraft industry. A gull-wing design, it was armed with a hub-firing autocannon and fuselage-mounted synchronised machine guns. Just 12 production models were built, as the aircraft was obsolescent at the time it was brought into service in 1935, and only eight were serviceable at the time of the German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941. After the defeat of Yugoslavia, the remaining four aircraft were taken onto the strength of the air force of the Axis puppet state, the Independent State of Croatia, but none survived the war.