Höfling, Rudolf Die Flugzeuge und Hubschrauber des Österreichischen Bundesheeres. Von 1955 bis heute

In this book, aviation expert Rudolf Höfling documents in pictures and text all aircraft and helicopter types procured and leased by the Austrian Armed Forces from 1955 to the present, from the Yakovlev Yak-18 and the Bell 47G2 to the Saab J 29F "Tonne", the Saab 350E "Draken" and the "Eurofighter" EF 2000.

With the signing of the Austrian State Treaty on 15 May 1955 - which restored Austria's sovereignty and fixed the withdrawal of the Allied occupation forces by the end of the same year - the immediate build-up of the new Austrian Air Force also began. Thus, on 15 July 1955, the Office of National Defence was established in the Federal Chancellery, and on the following 13 September, the subordinate Department III/L (Air) was created under the leadership of Major Josef Bizek. The actual birth of the new Austrian Air Force was on 9 December 1955, when Lieutenant Colonel Gustav Hauck took off for the first time from the Brumowski airbase in Langenlebarn, Lower Austria, at 10:01 a.m. with the locally assembled Yakovlev Yak-18 (3A-AB) - a gift from the Soviet Union - marking the first flight of an aircraft with Austrian markings after a gap of more than 17 years. The initial equipment of the Austrian Armed Forces on land and also in the air can be described as quite modest and consisted mainly of gifts and used equipment acquired very cheaply from the former occupying powers.