Balkan AD is a private joint-stock, machine-building company plant located in Lovech, Bulgaria, established in 1938. It produced aircraft, automobiles, motorcycles and bicycles. In December 2021 a new factory was built to start the making of e.GO Mobile cars, with production to start from the beginning of 2023.[1]
In its history, the plant used the following names: State Aircraft Factory (Държавна самолетна фабрика), Bicycle and Motorcycle Plant (Велосипеден и мотоциклетен завод), Light vehicle plant Balkan (Завод за леки автомобили „Балкан“), Balkan United Enterprise (Обединено стопанско предприятие „Балкан“), Balkan United Plants (Обединени заводи „Балкан“), Balkan Machine-Building Plant (Машиностроителен комбинат „Балкан“), Balkan EOOD (Балкан“ ЕООД), Balkan EAD („Балкан“ ЕАД), Balkan AD („Балкан“ АД).
The following vehicles were assembled in the factory:
When a 20-year restriction imposed by the Neuilly Treaty was lifted in 1938, the Bulgarian army was given the right to own fighter aircraft. The Air Force Command decided to create a modern aircraft factory in which to concentrate the Bulgarian aircraft industry, creating a center outside the capital and developing and manufacturing aircraft in quality and quantity corresponding to the best European models. A special commission selected the site for the factory.
The news of the construction of a plant was not met with enthusiasm in Lovech due to the fact that agricultural land had to be purchased for the construction of the plant. With consistency and perseverance, the mayor convinced the citizens that such a plant will create jobs and will raise the intellectual level of the city. The protocol of the meetings are still kept in the municipality. On July 5, 1939, anti-industry demonstrations were held, and were warmly welcomed by the residents of Lovech.
The buildings were designed by Polish engineers who had experience in building similar facilities in Poland. The new aircraft factory was called the State Aircraft Factory (abbreviated DSF)[2]
The following types of aircraft were manufactured:
DAR-9 Siniger was a trainer aircraft produced in the spring of 1943. In 3 consecutive series, 40 aircraft were built.
Avia-135 , a Czechoslovak fighter - delivered in parts. Some 12 units were put together, tested and handed over to the Air Force.
DAR-10, was designed as a reconnaissance aircraft. Its development began in DAR, but the prototype was built in DSF. This was a high-speed monoplane, very maneuverable, with secure control, rapidly gaining altitude. Eng. Petko Popganchev, who tested the machine, testified that this aircraft was faster than the Avia-534, but the prototype was destroyed in a crash caused by fog in 1942.
Laz-7MDAR-10F was a development of eng. C. Lazarov. With a Fiat engine, the aircraft had a top speed of 460km/h and had the qualities of a very good multi-purpose aircraft - for reconnaissance, for assault operations, for bombing (horizontal and with diving), for air combat. The aircraft was tested by eng. Popganchev in March 1945, but this aircraft did not enter serial production.
Lazarov Laz-7 and Laz-7M were aircraft constructed by eng. Lazarov and his team of designers. It was a monoplane, a bottom-wing designed for training and qualification of navigators and military pilots. This is an extremely successful aircraft and is the most mass-produced aircraft in Bulgaria - 160 pieces of Laz-7 and 150 of Laz-7M.
Laz-8 was a four-seater monoplane air taxi. Only one prototype was made as a gift from the aircraft constructors at the congress of the Bulgarian Communist Party in 1948.
Shortly after the end of World War II, the State Aircraft Factory in Lovech remained the only plant in the country to produce military aircraft after the Kazanlak Aircraft Factory ceased its production in 1947. In early 1949, the small factory grew into a large plant and was given the name Plant 14. The technician Gancho Lazarov has been appointed head director. Simultaneously, with the activity of the plant, there was training of aeronautical engineers at the Technical university in Sofia in progress, and lasted until 1954.
In 1954, COMECON made the decision to close the aircraft industry in Bulgaria. As a result, many of the young specialists, engineers, technicians and well-trained workers in Plant 14, who chose to dedicate their lives to aviation, were put in an almost hopeless situation. Among them was eng. Dimitar Damyanov, who started working in Lovech as an aeronautical engineer in the early 1950s.
From 1954: New products
After the closure of the aircraft industry, the name and the production nomenclature of the enterprise were changed several times. It was named the Bicycle and Motorcycle Plant, the Balkan Automobile Plant, the Balkan United Enterprise, the Balkan United Plants, and the Balkan Machine-Building Plant.
The initial restructuring of the plant after 1954 was associated with the short-term introduction of completely atypical production. Then the management of the former aviation factory proved its strength and came out of the crisis situation on its own initiative, which was proposed to the higher authorities. They offered to start mass production of cars and motorcycles in Lovech, for which the factory has had the necessary machinery and highly qualified specialists.
Since 1965, the plant has been called Balkan. It consisted of 6 other plants - a plant for cars, a plant for two-wheeled vehicles, a plant for mechanical products, a plant for plastics and rubber and a tool factory. Since 1971, as part of DSO "Balkancar" (Balkancar) produced parts for electric and forklift production in Bulgaria.
Towards the end of the 1950s, in an atmosphere of high technical professionalism, which was prevalent at the time in Bulgaria, the idea of developing a Bulgarian car was born. The goal was to eventually develop a prestigious production, forming the main profile of the former aircraft factory.
Moskvich Aleko, model 2141s
Preliminary preparations for the first prototype of a car began in late 1958. At the same time in the yard of the factory there was a Volkswagen car kept, of which the engine and chassis were used as a model. The process of preliminary preparation also included specialists from Plant 12 in Sofia, who managed to make an identical copy of the original engine provided to them (after 1956 the production of all engines for Balkan motorcycles was assigned to Plant 12).
The team of eng. Damyanov, which at that time included Yuli Kostov, eng. Kancho Kanchev, eng. Ivan Petrov (Deputy Chief Engineer), Georgi Filipov, Peycho Peychev, Georgi Lazarov and several otherswas tasked to shape the body. The forging of the individual components of the sheet metal bodies was done entirely by hand, with the help of wooden hammers on leather cushions filled with sand.
What especially complicated the work of the team was the so-called "geometric development", which was drawn on a huge board on a scale of 1:1. It is from here that all the measures for making templates, from which the details of the wooden model are made, are subsequently removed. The last stage of the work is related to the cutting of the wooden model into separate parts, from which the metal stamps for the external forms of the body are cast. The person in charge of making the models was Marin Radev, and Georgi Lazarov was in charge of forging the individual external elements.
Pickups and vans
In parallel with the car, a prototype of a light truck based on the Volkswagen Transporter was made. The design of the prototype was almost identical to the original. In September 1960, models of cars and a pickup trucks were exhibited in an open area on the International Fair in Plovdiv, with a "Made in Bulgaria" sign. In the spring of 1962 in Lovech the issue of the possible production of a light truck was again discussed. In March of the same year, the team of eng. Damyanov began preliminary preparations for this task, and the initial group included Ivan Savov, Vasil Valev, Bogdan Hambardjiev and Eng. Lyubomir Toshev, who took over the main work on the suspension. The goal is to complete the prototypes of a light truck and a minibus with an identical front part within 6 months, which will be presented at the jubilee 20th consecutive sample fair in Plovdiv.
In 1962, the efforts of the design department were focused on the creation of a light truck with a payload of 800kg and a minibus with 7+1 and 11 seats on the basis of the Soviet cars Volga and Moskvich. The pickup was made entirely in Lovech, but for the body of the 11-seater minibus a working visit was made to the bus plant Chavdar, Botevgrad, which was then the only specialized company for the production of bus bodies.
A model of a minibus and a light truck was shown in Plovdiv in September 1962 under the name Balkan T800, and their presentation was a huge success, supported by several enthusiastic articles in Bulgarian and foreign specialized publications. In April 1963, a zero series of 3 trucks was completed, whose loading platform was made of wood, unlike the first prototype, in which it was made of metal. The trucks passed the tests successfully and the proposed plan for serial production of Balkan T800 was approved. Just then, however, an unexpected problem arose - it turned out that the USSR could not produce enough sets of chassis and engines (at that time Moskvich was is still the only mass private car in the USSR), and the limited production capacity of the plant wouldn't be able to cover the needs of the local market.
Nevertheless, the design work continued and in 1965 the plant presented a model of a new, more modern version of the minibus, and in 1966 - a van on a scale of 1:5, of which the exterior design was assigned to eng. Petko Mishev from the center for industrial aesthetics and artistic design (CPEHP), which after 1964 developed the design of almost all motorcycles Balkan.
In 1967, the Plovdiv Fair showed the prototype of the Rila 700 - a minibus based on the Moskvich 408, whose body was designed by Hristo Hristov - who was among the prominent architects in Lovech. The last series of models of the Rila minibus were proposed in 1970 by Petko Mishev and Emil Ivanov (among the leading vehicle designers at the center), but they also did not receive the necessary approval from the relevant authorities, thus working on a prototype Bulgarian minibus has been discontinued.
The project manager was Dimitar Damyanov. The first prototype of a motorcycle called the Balkan M1 was presented at the 17th International Fair in Plovdiv in 1956. Production began in 1957, and by the end of that year, the first 100 pieces were made. The engines were made in Plant 12, Sofia. Motorcycles with 250cm³ engine displacement were produced until 1971.
In 1961, Plant 14 started producing mopeds of 50 cc engine capacity, the production of these lasted until 1975.
From 1971 to 1975 there was also a 75 cc version of the moped produced.
From 1990
Balkan was transformed with the state as a sole proprietor into a sole proprietorship with limited liability in 1995 and into a sole proprietorship joint stock company in 1996. The main activity of Balkan AD is the production of forklifts and bicycles, hydrodynamic transmitters, drive axles, spare parts.
The company was privatized in the first wave of mass privatization in 1995–1997. Balkan is a private joint stock company with 100 employees since 1997. Napredak Holding owns 44% of the capital by 2011.[3]
The Riga Autobus Factory was a factory in Jelgava, Latvia, making vans and minibuses under the brand name Latvija.
The DAR 10 was a Bulgarian light bomber and reconnaissance aircraft. DAR-10 was designed for horizontal and dive bombing, reconnaissance, and ground attack.
Adler was a German automobile and motorcycle manufacturer from 1900 until 1957. The 'Adler' name is German for 'eagle'.
Humber Limited was a British manufacturer of bicycles, motorcycles, and cars incorporated and listed on the stock exchange in 1887. It took the name "Humber & Co Limited" because of the high reputation of the products of one of the constituent businesses that had belonged to Thomas Humber. A financial reconstruction in 1899 transferred its business to Humber Limited.
Avia Motors s.r.o. is a Czech automotive manufacturer. It was founded in 1919 as an aircraft maker, and diversified into trucks after 1945. As an aircraft maker it was notable for producing biplane fighter aircraft, especially the B-534. Avia ceased aircraft production in 1963.
The Moskvitch 412 is a large family car produced by Soviet/Russian manufacturer MZMA/AZLK in Moscow from 1967 to 1975, and by IZh in Izhevsk from 1967 to 1982. It was a more powerful and prestigious version of the M-408 model, offering more features for a higher price.
MEBEA was an important Greek vehicle manufacturer, producer of light trucks, passenger automobiles, motorcycles, motorbike engines, agricultural machinery and bicycles.
The Moskvitch was a 20th-century Soviet/Bulgarian passenger car. Between 1966 and 1990, the Balkan factory in Lovech, Bulgaria, assembled the Soviet-designed Moskvitch 408 from complete knock down (CKD) kits.
Pirin-Fiat was the trademark of several passenger automobiles produced in Lovech, Bulgaria, and the result of a collaboration between Fiat and SPC Balkankar. Production lasted for five years (1967-1971).
The DAR 6 was a 1930s Bulgarian two-seat basic or advanced biplane training aircraft.
Darzhavna aeroplanna rabotilnitsa, abbreviated DAR (ДАР), was the first Bulgarian aircraft manufacturer, established in 1924 at Bojourishte.
Bulgaria is an industrialized nation with a developed heavy and light manufacturing industry. In 2007 industry accounted for 31.7% of the country's GDP. This makes industry the second largest sector of the economy after services. In 2007 the sector employed 33.6% of the labour force.
Balkan was a brand of motorcycles, mopeds and bicycles manufactured in Lovech, Bulgaria in 1957-1975.
This article provides an overview of the automotive industry in countries around the world.
Industrias Aeronáuticas y Mecánicas del Estado was a State-owned entity and autarchic conglomerate of factories of Argentina created in 1951 to promote the manufacture of aircraft and automobiles.
The Automotive industry in Ukraine was established during the Soviet times and until fall of the Soviet Union was an integral part of automotive industry of the Soviet Union. The first Ukraine-based motor vehicle brands were established in the late 1950s.
The LAZ-695 is a Soviet/Ukrainian 2 axle urban/suburban bus, which was produced in the Western Ukrainian city Lviv from 1965 to 2002. After the production stop at the main factory in Lviv, the documentation was handed over to the DAZ automotive facility in the Ukrainian city Kamianske, where the production continued up to 2010. In over 50 years of manufacturing there were built over 250 000 units of various modifications, made the model one of the most widespread buses in the Soviet Union and the LAZ factory the biggest bus manufacturer in Europe in the 1980s. The bus belongs to the model series 69x, which includes also the LAZ-697 “Tourist” and the LAZ-699.
Bulgaria's production strongly depended on auto imports from the Soviet block earlier and currently depends on other European and Asian countries. Presently, Bulgaria introduced its own domestic supercar company, SIN Cars.
LAZ-697 “Tourist” was a Soviet 2 axle, middle-class coach, which was produced in the Western Ukrainian city Lviv from 1959 to 1985. The model was derived from the LAZ-695, during the developing process of it. Because of that, both bus models are technically identical. LAZ-697 was used for touristic purposes as well as for shorter intercity-trips and so was more comfortable as the LAZ-695. It was taken out of production in 1985, in favor of the upper-class coach LAZ-699.
The DAR 3 Garvan was a 1930s Bulgarian single-engine, multipurpose reconnaissance and auxiliary aircraft.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
