AMO 72168 IAR-80C

The IAR-80 fighter was developed by Romanian company IAR Brasov. In April 1939, chief pilot Dumitru Popescu lifted the aircraft up in the air for a first time. Production flight tests took place at the aerodrome in Brasov. Shown performance turned out to be very good and after a number of developments the IAR-80 was put into serial production. The aircraft came in such modifications as IAR-80/A/B/C, IAR-81/A/B/C, differed mostly in engines and armaments.

The IAR-80 and IAR-81 fighters had been actively used on the eastern front line until the summer of 1943. After that all aircrafts were transferred in Romania for the state petroleum complex defense.