Bulgarian Air Force

By 1932, the German airline, Lufthansa, had sufficiently recovered from the economic woes of the 1920's to put in service a three-engine civil transport plane, the Junkers Ju 52/3m. Based on a short-lived single engine model, the Ju 52 first flew in April 1931 and quickly became the workhorse of both the airline and the reviving Luftwaffe, with a standard passenger-carrying load of 17. During the Spanish Civil War, the Ju 52 ferried more than 10,000 Moorish troops from Morocco to Spain, as well as dropping 6000 tons of bombs. With three BMW engines of 725 horsepower each, the Ju 52 had a maximum speed of 171 mph and a range of 800 miles. For air defense and tactical ground support the bomber carried two 7.92 machineguns and could be fitted with a variety of bomb racks as the need arose; the plane's trademark corrugated skin produced a very solid airframe.

By the beginning of World War Two over 1,000 Ju 52's were in service; eventually a total of 5,000 planes would fly the Nazi colors performing every imaginable mission from troop transport to mine-laying on all fronts. During the war some thirteen 'variations on a theme' saw improved radios, interchangeable float/ski/wheel landing gear (indicating the wide range of Luftwaffe requirements), better armor and engines, and heavier defensive armament.

Designed by Carlo Caligaris of Kaproni Bulgarski at Kazanlak, the KB-11 Fazan /Pheasant/ entered production ror the Vozdushni Vojski /Air Forces/ in 1942. Powered by Polish built Bristol Pegasus XX engine acquired from Germany, the KB-11 was servicing with the 1st Razuznavatelen Polk until the end of WWII. As part of the post WWII reparations to Yugoslavia, Bulgaria transferred 15 KB- 11s which were subsequently used for liaison and target-towing tasks until 1958.

Great work here. Thanks for posting!

Good stuff!

A miscellany of German types in Bulgarian service

The very beautiful Avia B-35

A selection of Bf 109Es including Stoyanov the ace

DB605's for the Bulgars

Good stuff!

Agree!

Some interesting looking camouflage paint jobs on the Emils and Gustavs.

Very well presented history! Just please mention the source for a good part of these photos, the lostbulgaria.com website. That site provides great photos, result of old photo searching, image processing, history research work. All available completely for free /for non-profit use, like on this site/, with the single requirement for the source to be mentioned. Saying all this not as a critic, of course.

BTW here you can see the whole picture archive on the Aviation theme /and yes, a large part of these are from my own collection /

Category Aviation: авиация | ИзгубенаÑ'а Ð'ългария

Theodor said:

Very well presented history! Just please mention the source for a good part of these photos, the lostbulgaria.com website. That site provides great photos, result of old photo searching, image processing, history research work. All available completely for free /for non-profit use, like on this site/, with the single requirement for the source to be mentioned. Saying all this not as a critic, of course.

Click to expand...

Thank you very much for the pictures. The site is great. Do you mind if I post some of those pictures here, in this thread?

Just one more thing; I am not an expert in WWI and I see your aircrafts are wearing german marking. Is that correct or those are not bulgarian fighters?

Hi! The pictures from the site are free to be posted in free forums, like that one, just the source must be mentioned. As for the Bulgarian aircraft, in WW1 these used the German markings. probably the aircraft were delivered with those, so sometimes it is confusing who is who.

In the mid 1930s, Bulgaria was still groaning under the restrictions of the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine (dealing with Bulgaria for its role as one of the Central Powers in World War I) that was signed on the 27th of November 1919 at Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Among severe border adjustments this treaty had also called for the aviation element of the Bulgarian Army to be disbanded and its equipment destroyed, furthermore Bulgaria was prohibited to possess any military aviation in any form for the next 20 years. In 1934 Czar Boris established a royal dictatorship and was displaying an increasingly belligerent stance. He more or less openly renounced the restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Neuilly, and among other countries turned to Germany for assistance in obtaining equipment for the first phase of the expansion of his military air component. The Bulgarians were nothing if not pragmatic; Germany offered the best credit terms and also training facilities for Bulgarian air and ground crews within the fledgling Luftwaffe. And so, during the course of 1936, the Vozdushni Voiski was recipient of a dozen each of the HeinkeI He 45 reconnaissance- bomber and He 51 single-seat fighter. It also received six each of the He 72 Kadett, Focke-Wulf Fw 44 Stieglitz and Fw 56 Stösser trainers. And in the next year, 12 ex-Luftwaffe Arado Ar 65 fighters and 12 Dornier Do 11D bombers intended primarily for the operational training task were presented to Czar Boris as a gift of the Third Reich.

The He 45s started their career in the 3rd Razuznavatelen Orliak (Reconnaissance Wing), Razuznavatelen Yato (Reconnaissance Squadron) where they were replaced when, in 1939, sufficient Czech Letov S-328s became available. The remaining 11 He 45s ended their career in the Instruktorskiego Orliak (Training Wing), Troop Yato (Squadron).

Source: AERONET GCE / IBERONET: La vida útil de los Heinkel He 45s – un resumen pictórico parte 1

Nice!

I agree, and I love the roundals.

The Arado Ar 96 was the Luftwaffe's standard advanced trainer, and was a two-seat low-wing all-metal monoplane that first flew in 1938. It was designed to fill the gap between the biplanes used for basic training and the advanced monoplane fighters just entering service, in particular the Bf 109. The Ar 96 was designed by Watler Blume and was a clean low-wing monoplane off all-metal construction, using many light alloys. The instructor and pupil sat in tandem seats under a long glazed canopy. On the V1 prototype the wheels retracted outwards, but this meant that the gap between the wheels was quite small, and so on all production aircraft the wheels retracted inwards. The V1 was powered by an Argus As 10C inline engine and had the typical Arado tail, with the horizontal surfaces at the very rear and a tall fin and rudder just in front of them. The V1 prototype underwent some trials at Rechlin during 1937, although it made its maiden flight in 1937. V3 and V4 were also at Rechlin in 1938, while V6 remained there until September 1940. A small batch of A-0 aircraft was produced during 1939, but these were felt to be under-powered. The main production version as the B-series, which used the more powerful Argus As 410A-1 inverted inline engine, and had a longer fuselage which allowed more fuel to be stored. A total of 11,546 aircraft were produced, although very few were built by Arado. Junkers' Ago subsidiary did most of the work until 1941, before being replaced by the Czech firm Avia. The Letov factory in Prague also began production of the Ar 97 in 1944.

The Arado Ar 96B was used by the A/B pilot training schools, and also by thirteen fighter training wings, the fighter replacement units and the officer cadet schools. 110 were used by the Royal Hungarian Air Force and four in Slovakia. The most dramatic moment in the aircraft's service career came on 28 April 1945 when Hanna Reitsch used an Ar 96 to fly Ritter von Greim, the new Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe out of the ruins of Berlin. An improved Ar 296 was planned but abandoned, while the Ar 396, which used fewer strategic materials, didn't arrive in time to serve with the Luftwaffe.

Source: Arado Ar 96

By the beginning of the 1930s, Germany was starting to show its discontent with the Treaty of Versailles which did not permit either powered flight or military development. Thousands of pilots had been trained in the Hitler Youth Glider Clubs, those that would become the top scoring pilots of all times, such as the highest scoring fighter pilot in history, Erich 'Bubi' Hartman. A powered airplane was needed for them to keep progressing. Here is where the story of the 'Jungmann' began. To avoid an obvious violation of the Treaty, Germany invested in over-seas companies, such as SAAB, a Swedish subsidiary of the Heinkel company, then managed by Carl Clemens Bücker. Once it was obvious this plan wasn´t working out, Germany started acting more openly and moved the manufacture of aircraft back to Germany. Bücker moved back to his native country and brought Anders Andersson, a Swedish engineer at SAAB, with him.

Rather than working again for Heinkel, and foreseeing what was about to take place in Germany, Bücker decided to start his own company, 'Bücker Flugzeugbau GmbH' . Within six months of the requirements for a new powered trainer being issued, Anders Andersson had the prototype Bü 131A 'Jungmann', registered D-3150 and powered by a 80HP Hirth HM-60R, ready for its test flight. A light aerobatic biplane, with two seats in tandem, its construction incorporated the most innovative techniques. It was April the 27th 1934, and Joachim Von Köpen was at the stick. That requirement came from the Deutscher Luftsport Verband, DLV (German Association for the Aerial Sport), a civilian organization, for which Hermann Göring was ultimately responsible. Certain aspects of the program were delegated to some very capable leaders, such as Erhard Milch (Erhard Milch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), who established the national priorities at a time when the Luftwaffe was still existing as a clandestine organization. That "civilian" DLV was the first school for most of the early German Aces of WWII, and the Bü 131 'Jungmann' was their mount! The requirement was for a cheap to operate trainer airplane, hence the decision to initially install a 80HP engine. Its manufacture had to be easy, simple, cheap; the aircraft fast, light, strong... Bücker´s answer was the Bü 131 'Jungmann'. A really advanced, light and completely new design, docile and easy to fly for the new pilot, the 'Jungmann' was also sturdy to tolerate his mistreatment, relatively simple to mass produce, thanks to details such as interchangeable upper and lower wing with constant chord; yet aerobatic and agile thanks to its four ailerons, with a 12G limit and responding to any request from the pilot smoothly and effortlessly, being able to go through all the aerobatic maneuvers of the time. By the end of the year, the demands of the DLV were so great that Bücker moved his factory to Rangsdorf, on the outskirts of Berlin. Out of its "secret" existence by 1936, the Luftwaffe adopted the airplane officially as its basic primary trainer. The Bü 131B was born with a more powerful engine, the 105 to 110HP Hirth HM-504, a decisive factor that increased its already excellent performances. That was also to be the export version. Appreciating its capabilities, orders were placed by different international governments whose orders were initially filled. Soon the orders began to eclipse the capabilities of the factory, so licenses were granted, first to Switzerland, then Czechoslovakia, Japan, Hungary and Spain.

Source: Bücker Bü 131 'Jungmann' - V Aviation

Excellent