The People's Army's trainer The Czechoslovakian L-29, Dolphin, is a jet-propelled trainer. It was able to take off from grassy airstrips. The Hungarian People's Army used 18 of them, which served between 1964 and 1984. NATO reporting name: Maya. The pride of the Czechoslovakian aeronautics industry The development of this plane began in 1955 at the Aero Vodochody aircraft factory, led by engineers Z. Rublic and K. Tomás. The prototype first flew in 1959 with an engine from the British Bristol Siddeley company, because the Czechoslovakian M-701 jet engine was not ready in time. However, the second L-29 flew with a Czechoslovakian engine. The Soviets favour the Czech plane At the beginning of the 1960s the Soviet Union wanted to introduce a new trainer. Contrary to common practice, they tested two foreign planes alongside the Soviet Yakolev type 30: the Polish PZL TS-11 Iskrat and the Czechoslovakian L-29. The Dolphin was the undisputed winner. The Soviet Union and the members of the Warsaw Pact, with the exception of Poland, which used its own planes, decided to introduce the L-29. The Aero Vodochody aircraft factory produced 3,665 Dolphins between 1963 and 1974. It was used in combat The L-29 was used by the air forces of numerous Asian and African countries. Despite the fact that it was intended to be a trainer and its combat capacities were limited, the Egyptian air force used them against Israeli armoured divisions on the Sinai Peninsula. Astronauts started with this too The first three Dolphins arrived in Hungary in November of 1964. By April of 1965, 15 more planes had arrived. The aircraft were taken to Szolnok where the students of the Kilián György School for Naval Officers (later Flight Academy) practiced with them. The two Hungarian astronauts, Bertalan Farkas and Béla Magyari trained with this model. The L-29s were retired from military service in 1984.