10/31/2005. Remarks by Malcolm Lowe: "Needing little introduction, the L-410 is one of the world's successful turboprop light transport aircraft. L-410s are in literally world-wide service, for civil and some military operators.

Sadly, the story for their manufacturer is not so rosy. Let Kunovice was once one of Czechoslovakia's main aviation companies, and was a major producer of transport aircraft from behind the Iron Curtain during the communist domination of Central Europe.

But Let has struggled since the fall of communism, and spent an unhappy spell under brief American ownership in the late 1990's. The company is now owned by another Czech organisation, and is trying to reassert itself.

The L-410 in the photograph was operated by its home airforce, the Czech Air Force. The Czech military operated a number of L-410s, but the aircraft pictured was a special L-410FG model, the FG standing for 'Foto Grammetry'. Since I photographed it on a rather grey day, it has been withdrawn from use and scrapped."