Volkseigener Betrieb

East German State aircraft factory; enjoyed brief existence in 1950s, with plants at Pirna/Elbe (Entwicklungsbau Pirna) and Dresden/Klotzsche. Established 1954 to license-build Soviet llyushin IL-14 twin-engined passenger transport and a variety of gliders. In 1956 was selected to develop BB-152 four-jet, swept-wing civil transport (Pirna turbojets), originally joint project from Prof Dipl Ing Brunolf Baade (deputy director of VEB) and Soviet designer Dr Bronin. Three twin-jet prototypes developed as Type 150 at Podberezje in USSR, themselves derived from Junkers Ju 287 bomber. Twenty-two BB-152s laid down, but only five prototypes completed; first flight in December 1960. Program was closed down and state aircraft manufacture in East Germany ended in 1961.