It was originally established as an aircraft manufacturer in 1923, under the name Ikarus. In 1954, it commenced bus production and since 1960 it completely shifted towards it. In 1992, it changed its name to Ikarbus.
History
Former administrative offices, demolished in 2018Official logo used from 1993 to 2014
On 13 October 1923, the company was established under name "Ikarus – the first Serbian airplane, car and engine industry Kovačević and Co", with headquarters in Novi Sad.[4][5] The founders were Dimitrije Konjović, brothers Dušan and Milivoj Kovačević, Đoka Radulović and Josif Mikl. On 20 November 1923, "Ikarus" started business officially after the registration before the Novi Sad District Court. In the beginning, the company manufactured a number of foreign designs under licence, such as the French Potez 25, Czechoslovakian Avia BH-33 and English Hawker Fury; Bristol Blenheim as well as the locally designed Ikarus ŠM, Ikarus IO, SIM-VIII, Ikarus IK-2 and Ikarus Orkan.
On 3 March 1924, the first school type airplane "Brandenburg" was manufactured.[4] In 1927, the Yugoslavian Air Command decided that "Ikarus" should start the production of military planes; the factory for the production of military planes was built in Zemun. On 20 June 1927, "Ikarus" together with Military and Navy Ministry concluded an agreement to build a new factory of airplane engines in Rakovica. In 1928, the Sports Club "Ikarus" was established, thus "Ikarus" being the first company to build gliders in the country. By December 1932, the company relocated its headquarters from Novi Sad to Zemun. In April 1935, the first model of war airplane of domestic design was completed; a single-seat glider "IK-1", designed by engineers Ljubomir Ilić and Kosta Sivčev. In January 1936, the Yugoslav Air Command and "Ikarus" signed an agreement for the manufacturing of British "Hawker Fury" fighter plane, of all-metal construction. By the spring of 1938, the Yugoslav Air Command and the company concluded an agreement on the supply of twin-engine bombers "Blenheim", under the British license. In 1938, the Administration Building of "Ikarus" in Zemun was built.[citation needed]
With the start of the World War II (WWII) in Yugoslavia, the Nazi Germany occupation authorities confiscated the company on 17 April 1941. On 17 and 25 April 1944, the factory was heavily damaged in the Allied air-strikes. By early November 1944, the factory restarted operations.
On 12 August 1945, the first emergency Assembly of "Ikarus" shareholders in the socialist Yugoslavia was held in. On 27 March 1946, "Ikarus" was nationalized by the decision of the District Court of Zemun. Until the end of 1946, the subsequent decisions in form of property nationalization were made. On 22 October 1946, the first plane "Aero-2B" flew for the first time, the first prototype made by the air industry in socialist Yugoslavia. On 23 January 1948, the Government of Yugoslavia made a decision to establish the State Enterprise "Ikarus". Also, the Sports Club "Naša krila" was established.
In 1950, a single-seat fighter plane S-49 was built by engineers Ilić, Sivčev, Zrnić and Popović. In the same year, "Ikarus" manufactured the first gliders in the socialist Yugoslavia; a single-seat glider "Hawk 1" was awarded the third prize at the International Championship in Sweden. By the end of October 1952, the first Yugoslav jet plane "451 M" took off. In 1954, "Kosava" twin-seat glider received the first prize at the International Championship in England.
From 1954 onward, Ikarus also commenced bus production, originally of Sauer and MAN designs under licence, but eventually the company's own designs.[4]
In 1957, the airplane Ikarus S-451MM set the world speed record flying at 750.34km/hour. In 1960, the Ikarus S-451M, ultra light jet plane set the world speed record, flying at 500.2km/hour. On 14 November 1961, by the official act of the Administration for Military Industry Affairs, "Ikarus" ceased to be a military company.[5] Most of the personal and equipment from the aircraft section of "Ikarus" had been relocated during the previous decade to a new aircraft factory SOKO, located in Mostar, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina.
During the 1990s Yugoslav Wars and international sanctions imposed on FR Yugoslavia, the company's production stagnated. As there was no political will to adjust a state-owned company to a transition, that trend continued during the 2000s and 2010s, causing Ikarbus to become indebted and work in limited capacity. In March 2019, the Chinese "Zhuhai Yinlong New Energy" company began the process of acquiring a majority stake in company's ownership structure.[6]
The fate of Ikarbus is uncertain as officially LGNEA Lanzhou Guangtong New Energy Automobile took over but is yet to start production or reactivate the facility in Zemun [7]
Every vehicle made by Ikarbus has a name starting with 'IK', followed by a hyphen and then the vehicle's code: IK-1xxs are solo city buses, IK-2xxs are articulated city buses and IK-3xxs and IK-4xxs are coaches. Earlier IK 160(P)/161/166 models are also articulated buses. The letter N disambiguates integral models from non-integral ones.
The last produced models under Ikarbus brand were:
Ikarus S-49C fighter plane on display at Belgrade Aviation MuseumIkarus Aero 2 primary trainer plane on display at Belgrade Aviation MuseumYugoslavian glider Ikarus Meteor 57 (YU-4103), probably, at Jeżów Sudecki airstrip (Poland)
In 1927 an aeronautical section of the factory was found in Zemun where numerous planes were designed and manufactured, as well as under license. The factory included its own airfield. After the end of the World War II, in 1946, another two aeronautical companies, Zmaj and Rogožarski joined Ikarus as a wholly nationalised state aircraft industry. The Ikarus factory had manufactured in its workshops 475 aircraft up until 1962, when it stopped working for the aviation industry.[5]
Soko was a Yugoslav aircraft manufacturer based in Mostar, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina. The company was responsible for the production of many military aircraft for the Yugoslav Air Force.
Utva Aviation Industry, commonly known as UTVA is a Serbian manufacturer of general aviation aircraft, subsidiary of Yugoimport SDPR, headquartered in Pančevo.
Ikarus was a bus manufacturer based in Budapest and Székesfehérvár, Hungary. It was established in 1895 as Imre Uhry's Blacksmith Workshop and Coach Factory(hun.: Uhry Imre Kovács- és Kocsigyártó Üzeme) and during the Communist era in Hungary it dominated bus markets of the entire Eastern Bloc and its allies.
The Rogožarski IK-3 was a 1930s Yugoslav monoplane single-seat fighter, designed by Ljubomir Ilić, Kosta Sivčev and Slobodan Zrnić as a successor to the Ikarus IK-2 fighter. Its armament consisted of a hub-firing 20 mm (0.79 in) autocannon and two fuselage-mounted synchronised machine guns. It was considered comparable to foreign aircraft such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109E and came into service in 1940. The prototype crashed during testing; twelve production aircraft had been delivered by July 1940.
The Ikarus S-49 was a Yugoslav single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft built for the Yugoslav Air Force shortly after World War II. Following the Tito–Stalin Split in 1948, the Yugoslav Air Force was left with an aircraft inventory consisting of mostly Soviet aircraft. Unable to acquire new aircraft or spare parts for its existing fleet, they turned to its domestic aviation industry in order to create an indigenous design to fulfill the need for additional aircraft.
Aeroput was an airline and flag carrier of Yugoslavia from 1927 until 1948.
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Chavdar was a Bulgarian bus builder located in the town of Botevgrad, Sofia Province. Founded by Racho Dzhambov in 1924, the company that would later become "Chavdar" produced around 200 buses between 1927 and 1947 on chassis from Ford Motor Company, Mercedes-Benz and Dodge. In 1948 the company was nationalised and acquired the name "Chavdar" in honour of the revolutionary Chavdar Voyvoda. It produced buses on chassis of Skoda 706 RTO but later shifted to license production of Setra and Steyr buses. It also developed several models on its own, which had good commercial success. The company closed in 1999.
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The Ikarus MM-2 was a 1940 prototype single engine low-wing monoplane advanced training aircraft featuring mixed construction and retractable undercarriage produced at the Yugoslavian Ikarus factory.
Sima Milutinović, was a Yugoslav mechanical engineer and a professor at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, at the University of Belgrade, the most prolific Yugoslav aircraft constructor.
Ikarbus IK-201 is an articulated city bus built by the Serbian bus manufacturer Ikarbus from 1993 until 2006.
Ikarbus IK-202 is an articulated city bus built by the Serbian bus manufacturer Ikarbus from 1996 until 2005.
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References
Footnotes
↑ Approximately 59 production aircraft were built by Utva.
↑ Approximately 170 production aircraft were built by Utva.
↑ Approximately 79 production aircraft were built by Utva.
↑ Approximately 110 production aircraft were built by SOKO.
↑ An additional 20 aircraft were supplied complete from Czechoslovakia.
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€0.11 million [1] (2020)
(€1.96 million) [1] (2020)
€0 [2] (2020)
