Turkish Aeronautical Association ( tr, Türk Hava Kurumu - THK) is a non-profit organization with an aim of increasing public awareness and participation in aviation related activities and the national body governing

air sports The term "air sports" covers a range of aerial activities, including air racing, aerobatics, aeromodelling, hang gliding, human-powered aircraft, parachuting, paragliding and skydiving. Recognized and regulated air sports Many air sports ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. The association was founded with the name ''Türk Tayyare Cemiyeti'' (Turkish Aeroplane League) by the directive of

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, or Mustafa Kemal Pasha until 1921, and Ghazi Mustafa Kemal from 1921 Surname Law (Turkey), until 1934 ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish Mareşal (Turkey), field marshal, Turkish National Movement, re ...

on February 16, 1925. During the 1940s, it operated a factory in

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

producing aircraft of its own design as well as under licence from British manufacturer Miles.Gunston 1995, 304 These manufacturing facilities were purchased in 1952 by

MKEK The Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation ( tr, Makina ve Kimya Endüstrisi or MKE for short), established in 1950, is a reorganization of government-controlled group of factories in Turkey that supplied the Turkish Armed Forces with mili ...

,Gunston 1995, 208 which produced the THK-15 design in quantity under the designation MKEK-4. THK is a member of

Fédération Aéronautique Internationale The (; FAI; en, World Air Sports Federation) is the world governing body for air sports, and also stewards definitions regarding human spaceflight. It was founded on 14 October 1905, and is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. It maintai ...

(FAI) since 1929, and has been an active participant in international air sports events and championships, including the organization of the 1st World Air Games hosted by THK in 1997.

Training centers

Türkkuşu Training Center

Türkkuşu Training Center in

also serves as the headquarters of THK. Throughout years, Türkkuşu trained many talented aviators including

Sabiha Gökçen Sabiha Gökçen (; 22 March 1913 – 22 March 2001) was a Turkish aviator. During her flight career, she flew around 8,000 hours and participated in 32 different military operations. She was the world's first female fighter pilot, aged 23. As an ...

the first female Turkish aviator. The center offers courses on: *

Piloting Piloting or pilotage is the process of navigating on water or in the air using fixed points of reference on the sea or on land, usually with reference to a nautical chart or aeronautical chart to obtain a fix of the position of the vessel or air ...

Parachuting Parachuting, including also skydiving, is a method of transiting from a high point in the atmosphere to the surface of Earth with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or parachutes. For ...

Gliding Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to remain airborne. The word ''soaring'' is al ...

* Construction and running of

model aircraft A model aircraft is a small unmanned aircraft. Many are replicas of real aircraft. Model aircraft are divided into two basic groups: flying and non-flying. Non-flying models are also termed static, display, or shelf models. Aircraft manufactur ...

İnönü Training Center

Located in

İnönü, Eskişehir İnönü is a town and district of Eskişehir Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. According to 2009 census, population of the district is 7,228 of which 3,980 live in the town of İnönü. The district covers an area of , and the a ...

, the center runs summer courses on the following air sports activities: * Parachuting * Gliding *

Ballooning Ballooning may refer to: * Hot air ballooning * Balloon (aeronautics) * Ballooning (spider) * Ballooning degeneration, a disease * Memory ballooning See also * Balloon (disambiguation) A balloon is a flexible container for (partially or fully) co ...

Paragliding Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness or lies supine in a cocoon-like 'po ...

Hang gliding Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised foot-launched heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered ...

Selçuk (Ephesus) Training Center

This center in

Selçuk Selçuk is a town in İzmir Province in the Aegean Region of Turkey. It is located northeast of the ancient city of Ephesus, that was once home to the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Its previous Greek name, Ag ...

İzmir İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban agglo ...

offers courses in: *

* Gliding * Parachuting *

Microlight Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with ailer ...

training The center also participates in

aerial firefighting Aerial may refer to: Music * ''Aerial'' (album), by Kate Bush * ''Aerials'' (song), from the album ''Toxicity'' by System of a Down Bands *Aerial (Canadian band) * Aerial (Scottish band) * Aerial (Swedish band) Performance art * Aerial sil ...

and agricultural chemical spraying operations in the region.

Aircraft

* THK-01 - WĘDRYCHOWSKI, Jerzy & DULĘBA, Leszek & ROGALSKI, Stanisław & TEISSEYRE, Jerzy - ''Türk Hava Kurumu'' * THK-2 * THK-03 - JACOBS, Hans & DFS - (DFS Habicht) * THK-04 -

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

- Türk Hava Kurumu (''АНТОНОВ УС-4'' (Antonov US-4)) *

THK-5 __NOTOC__ The THK-5 was a twin-engine aircraft designed by Stanisław Rogalski and built in Turkey in 1945 as an air ambulance. It was a conventional, low-wing cantilever monoplane of wooden construction throughout. The main units of the tailwhe ...

* THK-5A * THK-07 - Antonov, Oleg Konstantinovich & SSBC - Türk Hava Kurumu (Antonov PS-2) * THK-09 - SCHAWROW, W. B. & SSCB - Türk Hava Kurumu * THK-10 *

THK-11 __NOTOC__ The THK 11 was a 1940s prototype Turkey, Turkish four-seat monoplane, designed by Stanisław Rogalski and built by (THK - Turkish Aeronautical Association). Design and development The THK-11 was a high-wing twin-boom cantilever cabin m ...

* THK-12 *

THK-13 The THK-13 was an experimental tail-less glider built by the ''Turk Hava Kurumu Ucak Fabrikasi'' (THK) in Turkey in the late 1940s. Design and development The THK-13 was a tail-less glider, built predominantly from wood with fabric covering, wi ...

* THK-14 * THK-15 * THK-16 Mehmetçik (''Turkish'': " Little Mehmet") * THK-TAYSU (Abbreviations in ''Turkish'': Tarimsal Havacilik ve Yangin Söndürme Uçagi) Agricultural Aviation and Fire Fighting Aircraft

Notes

References

External links

Official website of THK
(Turkish, English, and French)
UÇANTÜRK
bimonthly journal of aeronautics and space published by THK Air sports Parachuting organizations Aircraft manufacturers of Turkey Aviation organizations based in Turkey

Air sports The term "air sports" covers a range of aerial activities, including air racing, aerobatics, aeromodelling, hang gliding, human-powered aircraft, parachuting, paragliding and skydiving. Recognized and regulated air sports Many air sports ...

Sports organizations established in 1925 Organizations based in Ankara Non-profit organizations based in Turkey 1925 establishments in Turkey {{Turkey-org-stub