International Air Show Batajnica 2009

[DBII]

great shots, I wish I could go.

DBII

 

[imalko]

Hawk - there were two British Hawks present at the airshow. One on static display and other participating in flight program, both carrying attractive paint scheme. Overall similarity between this aircraft and Serbian G-4 Supergaleb is more then obvious.

G-4 Supergaleb - once the pride of aeronautical industry of former Yugoslavia, the brite future anticipated for this aircraft didn't materialize due to the desintegration of the country. Out of 77 produced only 20 remain today. These are due for modernization and general overhaul same as to the upgrade to the G-4MD standard.

J-22 Orao - this aircraft was developed through international cooperation of former Yugoslavia and Romania. Thirty two examples still operate with the Serbian AF today.

MiG-21bis - aircraft of this type fly through our airspace since 1962, when first examples of MiG-21F-13 variant were delivered to Yugoslavia. Today only 27 MiG-21s still operate with Serbian AF. These are on strength with 101st Fighter Squadron. However, most of these aircraft are grounded because of the expiration of the flight resources. Two MiG-21bis interceptors armed with R-60 infra-red air-to-air missiles are constantly on alert within Air Defense system.
This particular MiG-21 (Nr 17163) shown on static display is the only one carrying this paint scheme. It was proposed as a new paint scheme in 2006 with introduction of new national insignia. However, all other MiG-21s retained old and simple light gray paint scheme, heavily weathered though, but carrying new insignia. As a interesting side note all aircraft serving with Serbian AF have special internal designation. For example MiG-21s are designated L-17. (The letter L meaning "lovac" = fighter.)

 

[109ROAMING]

Great shots! 8) thanks for sharing em

 

[Wildcat]

Very cool pics Igor!

 

[Gnomey]

Nice pics!

 

[Airframes]

very nice pics Igor, and that new trainer looks very smart. The PC 6 'Turbo Porter' brought back memories - one freefall jump I made out of one, the aircraft went into a vertical dive after we'd exited, and landed before I'd opened my canopy!

 

[imalko]

So Terry, you are familiar with PC-6 from personal experience... That sounds like very capable aircraft and is in accord with what I've learned about PC-6 so far. Not an aircraft which would win some beauty contest but certainly more than capable to get the job for which is designed done.

 

[Airframes]

Certainly is a great aircraft Igor, can land and take off virtually anywhere!

 

[GrauGeist]

Looks like it was a great show...really nice to see the eastern European aircraft for a change!

Thanks for sharing the photos!

 

[muller]

Great pics Igor! 8) Looks like it was a good show.

Re the Hind.... is Hind not the Nato designation for the Mi-24? I believe the soviet crews nicknamed it the Crocodile, a much more appropriate name!

 

[imalko]

You are right Keith, the Russians call it Crocodile (quite appropriate as you noted), but Hungarians being a NATO member now are using the western nickname/designation.

 

[B-17engineer]

As a side note I just wanted to add that looking at the photos I've posted so far you could get the wrong impression of the number of people present at this event. Most of my photos at the static display were taken either early in the morning or late in the afternoon after the end of flight program, basically at times when there weren't so many people around. But here's one photo from Airshow official internet presentation which shows the crowd at the high of the event photographed from control tower (as I suppose). According to some assessments there were more then 150.000 people present.

Nice.

 

[imalko]

That's it? The one I went to on the beach had near 700,000 people...... hehe

Don't know how exactly to repond to this comment. You know Harrison, some people might be offended with that kind a remark. However, I'm not because I understand it is an innocent joke.

For a country like Serbia with 7+ million inhabitants and at a place like this at Batajnica Air Base, with limited space available, even a "mere" 150.000+ people make a huge crowd.

 

[B-17engineer]

ah, my bad ?

 

[imalko]

I understand that something like this is nothing special to many of your western fellas, but I was very excited to see this aircraft for the first time in person. (That goes for Gripen, F-16 and some others too, but will return to that later.) There were two Typhoons from Italian AF present at Batajnica on Sunday. Sadly both on the static display only. What can I say, impressive looking machines but the dissapointment remains for not be able to see one in action in the air on that day.

As a side note, while we were observing the Eurofighters one friend of mine made a joke that looking from the front with canards lowered it looks like Dumbo. D)

 

[B-17engineer]

I understand that something like this is nothing special to many of your westerners, but I was very excited to see this aircraft for the first time in person. (That goes for Gripen, F-16 and some others too, but will return to that later.) There were two Typhoons from Italian AF present at Batajnica on Sunday. Sadly both on the static display only. What can I say, impressive looking machines but the dissapointment remains for not be able to see one in action in the air on that day.

As a side note, while we were observing the Eurofighters one friend of mine made a joke that looking from the front with canards lowered it looks like Dumbo. D)

And now I'm lost. What do you mean it's not exciting for us? Of course it is!

 

[imalko]

Quite right Harrison. What I meant is that Eurofighter is common sight on airshows across western Europe, but I guess not so much in the United States or elsewhere (as you noted).

 

[imalko]

Out of 16 MiG-29s purchased in Soviet Union by former Yugoslavia in 1987/88, five remaining planes were grounded in 2004 due to the expiration of flight resources. After overhaul and modernization the aircraft received an additional resource of 700 flight hours or 10 years of service and were recommissioned into 101st Fighter Squadron of Serbian AF in 2008. After the crash of one MiG-29 (Nr 18105) in July 2009, Serbian AF now has only four MiG-29s - three single-seat and one two-seat. Two-seat MiG-29UB was presented on the static display at the airshow, while two out of remaining three planes participated in flight program.

I had an opportunity to see Mirage-2000 for the first time back in 1997 also at Batajnica. On that occasion there were two aircraft present, one of Greek AF on static display and one from French AF performing a flight program. In 2009 there was only one Mirage-2000 of Greek AF on static display.

 

[Gnomey]

Good stuff Igor. The Eurofighter certainly is quite something to see in flight.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Excellent pics Igor!