PTO-4


The PTO-4 was an Estonian-designed military training aircraft of World War II.
In 1938, the Estonian aviation engineers Voldemar Post, Rein Tooma and Otto Org, previously responsible for the PON-1 trainer, designed and built the PTO-4 training aircraft. It was a two-seat low-winged monoplane powered by a De Havilland Gypsy of 120 hp, with a fixed undercarriage that could be fitted with wheels or skis. The aircraft could fly at a maximum speed of 245 km per hour and had a ceiling of 5,000 meters. On 12 October 1938, the PTO-4 was taken into service of the Air Force.
The Estonian Air Force received two PTO-4s, one with an open cockpit and the other an enclosed cockpit. Six examples were in civil use, of which five were used by the Eesti Aeroklubi, a flying club controlled by the Estonian Military.
Four examples surviving from the Soviet occupation of Estonia were operated by the German Luftwaffe, being operated by a unit manned by Estonian volunteers based at Reval-Ülemiste airfield. They were operated as training and liaison aircraft as well for coastal patrol over the shores of the Baltic.

Operators