First of all, I would like to thank Glorfindel for giving me the great privilege of posting in this thread some drawings of liason and transport aircraft of the East German Air Force.
Actually, I will exceed a bit a topic of this thread, as some of these planes will be in colors of some East German paramilitary formations (that were, in fact, sort of reserve forces to NVA).
The famed Po-2 served in small numbers in the
NVA's predecessor, the
Kasernierte Volkspolizei (
KVP, Garrisoned People's Police) - ostensibly a paramilitary security formation, in fact an army in disguise (with it's own naval and air components -
KVP-See and
KVP-Luft respectively) and later in the
Luftsttreitkräfte / Luftverteidigung der Nationalen Volksarmee (der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik) (
LuSK/LVD NVA (der DDR) - Air Force / Air Defence of the National People's Army (of the German Democratic Republic) until mid-1960s. Also, more of them were used as trainers by the
Gesellschaft für Sport und Technik (
GST, Sport and Technology Association) which was a paramilitary "mass organization" conducting pre-military training of youth and modeled after such organizations as Soviet
DOSAAF, Polish
LOK or Czechoslovak
Svazarm, which used it until 1976.
(Updated October 2016)
Besides being used by East German airlines, seven Czechoslovak Aero Ae-45 airplanes were used first by
KVP-Luft and later
LuSK/LVD from mid-1950s to around 1965 as liason planes in the
Verbindungsstaffel 25 (
VS-25, 25th Liason Squadron) at Strausberg.
Another Czechoslovak plane that was used both by East German airlines and military aviation was Aero L-60 Brigadyr, 20 of wich were used in early 1960s as trainers by the
Transportfliegerausbildungsgeschwader 17 (
17th Transport Aviation Replacement Wing) at Dessau.
Also the ubiquitous An-2's was used by the
LuSK/LVD and
GST - total of 74 were used by these organizations and East German airlines between mid-1950s and the reunification of Germany (including 36 by the Air Force, though it should be noted that some of these planes changed owners during their service life). They were used by
Transportfliegerausbildungsgeschwader 17 (
17th Transport Aviation Replacement Wing) and later
Transportfliegerausbildungsstaffel 45 (
TAS-45, 45th Transport Aviation Replacement Squadron) at Dessau and Kamenz,
Transporfliegertstaffel 24 (
TFS-24, 24th Transport Aviation Squadron) at Dresden,
Verbindungsstaffel 14 (
VS-14, 14th Liason Squadron) at Strausberg,
Zieldarstellungkette 33 (
ZDK-33, 33rd Target Towing Flight) at Peenemünde,
Verbindungsfliegerkette 31 (
VK-31, 31st Liason Flight) at Cottbus and
Verbindungsfliegerkette 33 (
VK-33, 33rd Liason Flight) at Trollenhagen.
Hard-working Il-14 transports were used in
LuSK/LVD between 1956 and 1982.
Image updated February 2020
Replacement for Il-14's were An-26 turboprops, 12 of which were used since late 1970s and 1990 by
Transporfliegertstaffel 24 (
TFS-24, 24th Transport Aviation Squadron) at Dresden.
East Germany purchased since 1971 total of 81 Polish PZL-104 Wilga STOL airplanes, used by airlines,
GST and
Volkspolizei (
VoPo, People's Police).
In 1980
LuSK/LVD obtained 12 Czechoslovak turboprop transports L-410 Turbolet. They were used by
Transportfliegerausbildungsstaffel 45 (
TAS-45, 45th Transport Aviation Replacement Squadron) at Kamenz and
Verbindungsstaffel 14 (
VS-14, 14th Liason Squadron) at Strausberg (where they flew alongside Antonovs 2, Zlins 43 and Antonovs 14 - example of which, splendidly made by Cplnew83, You can see in the post above).