Milos Sijacki
Senior Airman
The Soko J-22 Orao (Eagle) is a twin-engined, subsonic, close support, ground attack and tactical reconnaissance aircraft, with secondary capability as low level interceptor. It was built as single-seat main attack version or as a combat capable two-seat version for advanced flying and weapon training. It was developed as a joint Yugoslav-Romanian project in the 1970s for the air forces of both nations.
On November 22, 1984, Orao 25101 piloted by test pilot Marjan Jelen broke the sound barrier in a shallow dive over Batajnica Air Base, becoming the first Yugoslav-designed aircraft to exceed Mach 1. The aircraft is, however incapable of breaking the sound barrier in level flight
The J-22 was extensively used during the various Balkan wars of the 1990s. It flew many missions with an extremely low loss rate. In 1991 J-22s flew over Slovenia in a show of force, but did not drop any bombs. The first offensive action by the J-22 was in 1991 when the Yugoslav National Army used them to strike targets in Croatia. In the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, J-22s belonging to the Bosnian Serb army were used against Bosniak and Croatian targets.
In 1999, Serbian J-22s saw combat against the KLA. During the campaign, Serbian sources claim, a J-22 shot down a Tomahawk cruise missile, this representing the only successful air-to-air action by an Orao. The war ended with most Oraos surviving the bombing campaign.
Design and Development:
On May 20 1971, the governments of Romania and Yugoslavia signed an agreement for the formation of YuRom, a joint R&D venture. The program was headed by Dipl. Dr. Engineer Teodor Zanfirescu of Romania and Colonel Vidoje Knezevic of Yugoslavia. The aircraft was intended as a replacement for the lightly armed Soko J-21 Jastreb (Hawk) and the Republic F-84 Thunderjet, then in the JNA arsenal.
The requirements called for a light aircraft to be built on a simple structure, using locally produced equipment and avionics (but compatible with western components), tough (able to operate on grass or damaged runways), easy to maintain and reliable. The aircraft was of conventional twin-engine, high mounted wing monoplane configuration with all flying surfaces swept. The Rolls-Royce Viper was chosen as the power plant, as Soko had experience with license-building this engine. It was originally intended that an afterburner would be developed for the Viper engines, but there were prolonged difficulties with this project, meaning that none of the pre-production aircraft featured it, and neither did early production examples. During the 1980s, both countries developed slightly different versions to take advantage of the after burning engines that had since become available.
The Yugoslav prototype 25002 made its first flight on November 1976 from Batajnica Air Base near Belgrade, with Major Vladislav Slavujevic at the controls.
The third aircraft, numbered 003, a pre-production two-seater version, made its first flight on July 4, 1977, but was lost almost a year later due to tail flutter problems. However, construction continued, and the first batches of pre-production machines were delivered in 1978 to the Air Force Aircraft Testing Facility in Belgrade, with serial production being set-up in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On November 22, 1984, Orao 25101 piloted by test pilot Marjan Jelen broke the sound barrier in a shallow dive over Batajnica Air Base, becoming the first Yugoslav-designed aircraft to exceed Mach 1. The aircraft is, however incapable of breaking the sound barrier in level flight
The J-22 was extensively used during the various Balkan wars of the 1990s. It flew many missions with an extremely low loss rate. In 1991 J-22s flew over Slovenia in a show of force, but did not drop any bombs. The first offensive action by the J-22 was in 1991 when the Yugoslav National Army used them to strike targets in Croatia. In the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, J-22s belonging to the Bosnian Serb army were used against Bosniak and Croatian targets.
In 1999, Serbian J-22s saw combat against the KLA. During the campaign, Serbian sources claim, a J-22 shot down a Tomahawk cruise missile, this representing the only successful air-to-air action by an Orao. The war ended with most Oraos surviving the bombing campaign.
Design and Development:
On May 20 1971, the governments of Romania and Yugoslavia signed an agreement for the formation of YuRom, a joint R&D venture. The program was headed by Dipl. Dr. Engineer Teodor Zanfirescu of Romania and Colonel Vidoje Knezevic of Yugoslavia. The aircraft was intended as a replacement for the lightly armed Soko J-21 Jastreb (Hawk) and the Republic F-84 Thunderjet, then in the JNA arsenal.
The requirements called for a light aircraft to be built on a simple structure, using locally produced equipment and avionics (but compatible with western components), tough (able to operate on grass or damaged runways), easy to maintain and reliable. The aircraft was of conventional twin-engine, high mounted wing monoplane configuration with all flying surfaces swept. The Rolls-Royce Viper was chosen as the power plant, as Soko had experience with license-building this engine. It was originally intended that an afterburner would be developed for the Viper engines, but there were prolonged difficulties with this project, meaning that none of the pre-production aircraft featured it, and neither did early production examples. During the 1980s, both countries developed slightly different versions to take advantage of the after burning engines that had since become available.
The Yugoslav prototype 25002 made its first flight on November 1976 from Batajnica Air Base near Belgrade, with Major Vladislav Slavujevic at the controls.
The third aircraft, numbered 003, a pre-production two-seater version, made its first flight on July 4, 1977, but was lost almost a year later due to tail flutter problems. However, construction continued, and the first batches of pre-production machines were delivered in 1978 to the Air Force Aircraft Testing Facility in Belgrade, with serial production being set-up in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
