A deep-dive into the sidelined history of how Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's policies shaped aviation sector of Turkey and revolutionized Turkish defense industry.
The Sea Drop Mag Team
May 9, 2026 | Issue 1
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was a genius military officer and revolutionary statesman who led the Turkish Independence War and founded the secular republic of Turkey from the ashes of a dying empire. While Western world surged ahead in industrialization, science, and education, the Ottoman Empire lagged behind — earning the title “The Sick Man of Europe.” Atatürk realized this decline and understood that Turkey’s survival depended on radical modernization across every sphere — industry, economy, education, agriculture, women’s rights, and defense. Among these, one sector would transform the nation’s future: aviation.
While the Ottoman Empire indeed had a partially-formed air force called the ‘Ottoman Aviation Squadrons’ founded in 1909, but it had only few fighter aircrafts bought from Germany, UK and other countries. There was a lack of expert aviators and hardly any maintenance or repair facilities, let alone any aircraft production factories. Due to these limitations, they hardly won any war with these aircrafts. All these infuriated brilliant aviators like Vecihi Hürkus and Ahmet Ali Çelikten, who would later become key figures in Atatürk’s aviation revolution. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who was also a military officer during Ottoman Empire, witnessed how the superiority of the air forces of British & their allies overpowered the weak Ottoman forces. This made him realize that the future lied in the skies, as one of his quotes states: “Our future is in the skies. Nations that cannot protect their skies can never be sure of their future”.
Vecihi Hürkus (left) and Ahmet Ali Çelikten (right). Ahmet was an Ottoman Afro-Turk, and also the first black military pilot in the world
After Turkey’s foundation in 1923, Atatürk quickly initiated aviation efforts. In his opening speech to the Parliament on November 1, 1924, while speaking about national defense, he said : “When speaking of national defense, I especially draw the attention and interest of the Grand Assembly to the air forces, which are an important and influential factor in the military world”.
To lay the foundations of the aviation industry, he established the Turkish Aircraft Association (in Turkish, Türk Tayyare Cemiyeti — TTC) on February 16, 1925. Later it was renamed as Turkish Aeronautical Association (in Turkish, Türk Hava Kurumu — THK). He also left the copyright income of his famous book Nutuk to this institution, along with a 10,000 Turkish Lira donation. With the budget allocation and aid received, THK bought many planes. The THK also sent many Turkish aviation engineers and pilots to receive higher education and training in countries like Germany, United States and Soviet Union. Separately from the Turkish Aeronautical Association, on May 20, 1933, the ‘State Airlines Administration’ was established under Atatürk. It later become the popular Turkish Airlines. On May 3, 1935, Atatürk established Türk Kuşu (Turkish Bird), a flight school under THK, to introduce Turkish youth to aviation and train them. In 1925, Turkey’s first military aviation school and airport was established in Eskişehir. On April 23, 1926, the ‘Aircraft Mechanic School’ was opened to train the technical personnel required by Turkish aviation. Students were sent to France and Germany for aircraft engineering training.
But Atatürk’s vision went beyond acquiring foreign aircraft — he insisted on self-reliance. As recalled by his adopted daughter and aviator Sabiha Gökçen in her book Atatürk’ün İzinde Bir Ömür Böyle Geçti (A Life Spent in the Footsteps of Atatürk), he often said, “We will build our own planes, parachutes, engines, and spare parts.”
Sabiha Gökçen, aviator and adopted daughter of Mustafa Kemal. She was also the first female fighter pilot in the world.
The carpentry workshop established in Akköprü, Ankara, in 1925, later became the Glider Workshop. By 1939, 150 gliders were built. During the same time, under Atatürk’s direct initiative, ‘TOMTAŞ — Tayyare ve Motor Türk Anonim Şirketi’ (Turkish Aircraft and Engine Joint Stock Company) was founded in 1925. The foundation of TOMTAŞ was also the result of a smart foreign policy led by Atatürk. After Germany lost WWI (World War I), they were restricted from building military aircrafts in their own country. At the same time, the newly founded Turkish republic lacked proper resources, capital and expertise to build their own aircrafts. Thus, Atatürk came up with a bold and ingenious idea of letting Germany build their aircrafts in Turkey — which eventually benefited Turkey, as the country gained German aviation technology, expertise and resources to build their own indigenous aircrafts in upcoming years, including Turkish Air Force were able to manufacture the finest German aircrafts for themselves in their own country.
TOMTAŞ Aircraft Production Factory of Kayseri, pictures from mid 1920s to late 1930s
After Germany and Turkey signed a friendship treaty in 1924, soon there was an agreement regarding joint aircraft production between Turkish Finance Minister Hasan Bey, on behalf of Turkish Government, and Monsieur Sachsenberg, on behalf of Germany’s Junkers Aircraft Manufacturers — which was approved at the Council of Ministers meeting on October 7, 1925. Shortly thereafter, the Atatürk government decided to establish a state-supported joint-stock company to implement this agreement and established the first aircraft factories in Turkey. TOMTAŞ was founded with a capital of 3,360,000 Turkish Lira, headquartered in Ankara, following the approval by the Council of Ministers on October 25, 1925. TOMTAŞ founded the Aircraft Production Factory in Kayseri and Aircraft Maintenance & Repair Facility in Eskişehir. The TOMTAŞ Aircraft Production Factory of Kayseri was one of the largest aircraft manufacturing factories in the world back then. This paved the way for foreign companies from United States, Poland, and others to collaborate and attracted their investments into this newly growing aviation industry of Turkey.
The agreement between the Turkish Government and Junkers, dated August 15, 1925, stipulated that the production would start within a maximum of two years. The factory was planned in two phases: reaching the capability to repair aircraft by the fall of 1926, and starting aircraft production in 1927. The German firm Philipp Holzmann und Co., which won the construction bid, began building hangars, water wells, warehouses, personnel housing, and factory facilities. Materials brought from Germany’s Hamburg to Iskenderun and then by train to Ulukışla Station, were transported to Kayseri under very difficult conditions using horses, mules, camels, ox carts, and horse-drawn carriages. A power plant (500 KW total power) was built and commissioned (as Kayseri did not have electricity at that time). In the first stage, 18 people were sent to Junkers facilities in Germany for training. On October 1, 1926, a team of 170 people (50 Turks and 120 Germans) prepared the factory for assembly. Training began simultaneously by sending some Turkish personnel to Germany and establishing the ‘Kayseri Machinist School’. The first section of the TOMTAŞ Kayseri Aircraft Factory was completed and officially opened on October 6, 1926, with a ceremony attended by the-then Minister of National Defense Recep Peker, TOMTAŞ Board Chairman Refik Koraltan, Kayseri Mayor İbrahim Safa Bey, and a 22-person delegation who had traveled from Ankara to Kayseri in two hours via three planes.
Top photo : Women in veil looking at Junkers F-B (produced in Kayseri). 2nd photo (bottom left) : Planes produced in Kayseri arrives in Ankara, 1934. 3rd photo (bottom right) : A Turkish pilot standing beside a Gotha 145A aircraft produced in Kayseri Factory for Turkish Air Force [Photo credit : Filiz Sönmez]
Immediately after the opening, the factory began maintenance and repair work. In 1927, it performed maintenance, repair, and renewal of the Turkish Air Force’s Junkers A–20, F–13, and G–23 aircraft, and began the assembly of five Junkers A–20s on the assembly line. A total of approximately 30 Junkers A-20s were assembled at the Kayseri Aircraft Factory and delivered to the Eskişehir Air Base. The test flights were carried out by the chief test pilot, Vecihi Hürkuş. The Junkers A-20 bomber aircraft were the first planes manufactured under license in Turkey in 1928. 15 of these bomber aircrafts were manufactured by the Turkish Air Force until 1932 in this very factory. In 1935, 50 gliders of three different types were manufactured for “Türk Kuşu” in this very factory. A total of 212 aircrafts of 7 different models (including Curtiss Hawks, Fledgling 2Cs, Gotha 145A, Miles-Magister etc.) were produced at the Kayseri Aircraft Factory between 1926 and 1942. The first Fledgling brand aircraft produced here was donated to Iran in 1932 by Atatürk’s order.
Cumhuriyet newspaper on January 19, 1932. Atatürk sends a Fledgling aircraft to Iran as a gift.
Kemal Atatürk addresses Grand National Assembly on November 1, 1937. He mentioned about the aircrafts manufactured by Kayseri Aircraft Factory
Kemal Atatürk, in his opening speech to the Turkish Grand National Assembly on November 1, 1937, referred to the aircraft made by the Kayseri Aircraft Factory, saying, “Henceforth, all of our aircraft and their engines must be produced in our country, and our war industry must be developed based on this principle.”
Alongside firmly establishing the aviation industry in Turkey, this Kayseri Aircraft Factory also had immense positive economic and technological impact on Kayseri. The Turkish workers’ population at the factory, which was 50 in the early years, increased to 500–600 people after 1935. In 1948, the factory employed 888 workers, 135 of whom were apprentices, with 15% being women. The factory created employment, and the social, cultural, and economic rights of the workers were fully observed. Working at the aircraft factory was considered a symbol of high social status in the community. Because the factory was built far south of the city center, the Kayseri Municipality began offering public transportation services for the first time in Kayseri to facilitate workers’ commutes. The factory also established a well-equipped hospital and a boarding apprentice school for 30 village children, providing educational opportunities and helping the socioeconomic development of the nearby rural population. Kayseri’s growth and development is often credited to this factory.
Selahattin Reşit Alan and his MMV-1 (left). Vecihi Hürkuş with his Vecihi-14 (top right), Thk-5 air ambulance (bottom right)
Meanwhile, TOMTAŞ established Aircraft Maintenance & Repair Facility in Eskişehir in 1926. In this factory, the first Turkish prototype aircraft, named Vecihi-14, was built by Vecihi Hürkuş, who had joined THK. The second prototype built here, was the training and reconnaissance aircraft MMV-1 (Milli Müdafaa Vekaleti-1) designed by another brilliant aviation engineer Selahattin Reşit Alan in 1930. Meanwhile, Ahmet Ali Çelikten — an officer of Afro-Turkish descent and the world’s first Black military pilot — continued his service in the Turkish Air Force, later appointed to the Air Under-Secretariat in 1928. At the same time, Ataturk also encouraged indigenous private enterprises to contribute. One of the private companies Nuri Demirağ Aircraft Works, founded by politician and industrialist Nuri Demirağ who partnered with engineer Selahattin Reşit Alan, produced Nu D.36 in 1936. Nu D.36 was a two-seater basic training aircraft, and 24 of these were manufactured in the Nuri Demirağ Aircraft Works factory in Beşiktaş, Istanbul. Following it, a twin-engine aircraft prototype Nu D.38 was developed. Both Nu D.36 and Nu D.38 were one of the finest indigenous military training aircrafts ever built in Turkey. Meanwhile, the air ambulance Thk-5 was designed in Etimesgut Aircraft Factory by a Polish engineer working for THK, which was highly demanded in Denmark.
Photos of Nuri Demirag aircrafts and its factory, 1930s to 1940s.
Nuri Demirağ
By the mid-1930s, Turkey had already become one of the biggest global manufacturers of military aircrafts, and achieved the ability of maintaining and repairing its own aircrafts without outside assistance. It must also be mentioned that Atatürk believed in equal emancipation of women and thus encouraged his adopted daughter Sabiha Gökçen to take up aviation training, becoming the world’s first female fighter pilot. It also explains on how initially 15% of technicians and workers in Kayseri Aircraft Factory were women — which is the direct result of Atatürk’s policies for women’s participation in aviation.
Atatürk’s aviation revolution was not only a strategic approach towards wider self-reliance, but also had visionary planning along with pragmatic steps to ensure a strong military, economic and technological development. During his visit to Eskişehir in 1936, he said, “The most effective weapon and vehicle of the future is the airplane without any doubt. One day, human beings will walk in the skies without an airplane, go to the planets, and maybe send us signals from the moon. For the realization of this miracle will not have to wait for year 2000. Developing technology already heralds this. Our duty is to ensure that we do not lag too far behind the West in this regard.”
Atatürk has often been criticized by conservative Islamists as an “enemy of Islam”, yet the irony remains that he accomplished what no other Muslim-majority nation had achieved at the time — establishing a homegrown aviation industry, making Turkey the first Muslim-majority country in the world to achieve this feat. In doing so, he revived the spirit of Muslim inventors and aviators from the Islamic Golden Age — pioneers like Abbas Ibn Firnas and Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi — who dreamed of a Muslim civilization capable of conquering the skies. While it’s true that much of the aircraft production stopped after 1950s for various reasons, it left a deep mark among Turkish national psyche to continue pursuing self-reliance. The new beginning of Turkey’s indigenous aviation into massive production projects since 2010s, reignited that lost hope and the vision laid by Mustafa Kemal. Today, Turkey’s drones and defense aircraft dominate global battlefields, from the Caucasus to Ukraine. This technological prowess did not appear overnight — it took flight a century ago, when Atatürk declared that the nation’s destiny lay in the skies and built the institutions, knowledge base, and industrial foundation to make it possible.
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