Representative image2625ATwin turboprop
2022 LET L-410 UVP-E20
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Representative image19-seat utility turboprop· 2 in stock now
The LET L-410 is the short-field specialist of the 19-seat class: a high-wing Czech design built for unprepared strips, with over 1,200 produced and a worldwide utility following. The current UVP-E20 pairs rugged trailing-link gear with modern GE H80-series engines.
It takes off and lands in distances that embarrass every competitor — grass, gravel, dirt included — at the cost of cruise speed, which is not what this aircraft is for.
The aircraft
The L-410 was born in Czechoslovakia in the late 1960s, designed at the Let works in Kunovice to an Aeroflot requirement for a turbine replacement for the Antonov An-2. The prototype flew on 16 April 1969. The intended Czech engine, the Walter M601, was not ready, so early L-410A production flew on Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-27s until the M601 matured — after which the type and that engine became inseparable for four decades.
The aircraft that most of the world knows arrived in 1979: the L-410 UVP, with a modestly stretched fuselage and uprated M601 engines, refined through the 1980s into the UVP-E and later the western-certified UVP-E20. Aeroflot absorbed the majority of the production run, scattering the type across the Soviet interior, and around 1,200 have been built in total — making it comfortably the most-produced western-operated 19-seat utility turboprop of its kind, even before counting its enormous second-hand diaspora through Africa and Latin America.
Uniquely in this class, the L-410 is still being built. The factory — trading as Aircraft Industries, Russian-owned from 2008 until its 2022 acquisition by the Czech Omnipol group — put the modernised L 410 NG into serial production in 2018, with more fuel, more payload, glass avionics and GE's H80-series engines. A type designed for Soviet gravel now rolls out of an EU factory with current-production support behind it, which changes the ownership calculation for every earlier UVP-E20 as well.
Key figures
Standard published figures for a typically equipped LET L-410 UVP-E20. Individual airframes vary with configuration and modification — the specification on a listing is what governs.
Where it reaches
Click the map to move the origin to your base and see how far the L-410 UVP-E20 reaches at 70, 90 and 100 per cent of published range.
The broker’s view
The L-410 case is straightforward: if the mission is 19 seats into genuinely short or rough strips, nothing Western matches it at the price. Late-build E20s with H80 engines and glass avionics are effectively new-generation aircraft, and recent examples reach the market rarely.
Support has internationalised well beyond the type's Eastern-bloc roots; parts flow is no longer the concern it once was.
The family
The 1970s originals — PT6A-27 power on the A, early M601s on the M. Historically interesting, commercially irrelevant now; almost none remain in serious service and they should be priced as parts or projects.
The 1979 mainstay: stretched fuselage, M601B engines and the rough-field gear that defines the type. Huge numbers were built for Aeroflot; surviving examples vary enormously in history and paperwork, so documentation is everything.
The refined mid-1980s development with more powerful M601E engines, higher weights and tip tanks. The most numerous version a buyer will actually meet, and the baseline for most African commercial fleets.
The UVP-E brought up to western commuter certification standards — the variant with EASA acceptance and the one to own for commercial passenger work. Late-build E20s came new with GE H80 engines and glass avionics.
The current-production model, flying since 2015 and in serial production from 2018: new wing with more fuel, higher payload, modern glass cockpit and H80-series power. Effectively a new aircraft wearing a familiar shape, at new-aircraft money.
Common questions
Takeoff and landing distances are in the region of 600 metres on unpaved surfaces at typical weights — the shortest in the 19-seat class.
Published range is around 820 NM with standard fuel; the type is built for high-frequency short sectors rather than distance.
Yes — EASA and many national certifications cover the type, and it flies scheduled and charter passenger service across Africa, Latin America and Asia.
Acquisition is the bargain of the 19-seat class, and airframe upkeep is simple and honest. The engines set the tone: M601s are cheap to overhaul but on shorter cycles, while GE H80 conversions cost more up front and repay it in intervals, performance and fuel.
The Twin Otter has the purer STOL pedigree and floats capability; the L-410 carries a similar load faster, in a wider cabin, usually for markedly less capital. For short unpaved strips without water work, the L-410 is the value answer — which is why Africa runs so many.
Better than they have been in years. The Kunovice factory is under Czech ownership, still building the type, and supporting the legacy fleet from inside the EU, while GE backs the H80 engine line. Sanctions-era complications applied to Russian-operated fleets, not to the western supply chain.
Buying or selling, the conversation costs nothing. Tell us the mission and the budget and we will tell you honestly whether the L-410 UVP-E20 — or something else — is the right airframe for it.
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