The hand-painted combat aircraft “Orao J 22” of the art association “Craft and Art” is a new attraction of the Museum of Aeronautics in Belgrade.
This is an unusual artwork that forms part of the exhibition of the works by Marko Ćulum and Marko Ivković, who together with Stevan Jovanović make an incredible and creative team from the association “Craft and Art”.
The plane has an eagle in its name and of course everyone knows that the eagle is on our Serbian flag. The old and solid eagle extends as a mark of our nation and country through history. It was a good reason for the eagle joining with our tricolor, and this was the result of this visual intervention.
IAR-93 / SOKO J-22 Orao (Eagle)
The IAR-93 multipurpose tactical aircraft is a joint product of the Romanian and Yugoslav industries. The program is named Juron, and, outside of Romania, the plane is known by the code name J-22 Orao. The engines of this traditional overhead swept-back wing model are located in the fuselage. It has two built-in 30-mm machine cannons, and, on its two weapon suspension points under each half-wing, and on the single one on the bottom of the fuselage, it carries air-to-air missiles and aerial bombs. The plane also has a two-seater trainer version.
The project was born as result of common ambitious initiative of the Jugoslavian president - Josip Broz Tito and of Romanian at the time president, to achieve in co-operation an aircraft desired to become « the fighter of the non aligned countries ».
The Orao is a twin-engine, turbojet, high-wing aircraft intended for performing tactical assault missions within the zone of the front and also in the enemy rear. It is manufactured in single-seater (J-22) and two-seater (NJ-22) versions and as a single-seater (IJ-22) and two-seater (INJ-22) reconnaissance plane, though the latter’s engine does not have afterburning. The wing is trapezoidal, swept-back, low thickness ratio with pronounced strakes (hybrid wings). The propulsion system consists of two single-shaft Rolls-Royce turbojet engines in the Viper family. The engines are located side by side, in the rear section of the fuselage.