The Pyry was first conceived by the Finnish State Aircraft Factory (VL) on 1937 when a need arose for a new advanced trainer to prepare pilots for fast monoplanes (Fokker D.XXI at the time). So Pyry (roughly translated as blizzard) was basically built to fill the same role as Texan/Harvard in US. The prototype was finished in 1939. This lead to an order of 40 aircraft that were delivered 1940-41. As the war broke out during the construction, it inevitably caused some delays. 25 examples survived the war and continued to serve until 1962. In the end, total of 28 aircraft were destroyed and 27 pilots were killed. Today, three Pyrys (PY-1, -27 and -35) survive in museums and as far as I know, one of them (PY-27) is on display. The aircraft were numbered from PY-1 (the prototype) to PY-41.