A Quick Sat. Nite Quiz, Pt. II

I wish I did have more details. All I was told was that the pilot was the “Chuck Yeager” of the Polish AF and that he was killed in an Iskra shortly after the “Ostatni Lim”, last flight of the Lim 5.

As for MiG-17F, LiM 5 & 6s in the US I think it’s a simple matter of supply and demand. Currently there are more MiGs available than qualified pilots who are willing to spend $1000+ per hour to fly.

Thanks for the info Arthur. OK, I confess, I was hoping to find someone like you that knew more about this particular MiG-17F (Lim 5).

My understanding is that this airplane was retired by the Polish AF and flown at an airshow on 12 July 1993. That’s pretty ease because they were nice enough to paint it on the plane. I also knew it was operated by 45 LED, which I was told was a test squadron. I suspected, but was not sure that the “final flight” airshow was at Modlin. I was also told that the pilot for the airshow was a top Polish test pilot who was killed a short time after in an Iskra.

After the plane came to the US it was purchased by Jimmy Rossi, who used it as a back up for his airshow MiG-17F “Mister MiG”. Jimmy flew the plane only occasionally, eventually trading it for an F-86. Tragically Jimmy was killed in the F-86 departing from an airshow in the Caribbean.

The plane had sat for a few years when I bought it, so a teardown inspection was begun. Well, that led to some system improvements in the Oxygen and Nitrogen systems, and then the radios needed to be updated…well, you get the idea. Should be finished by late summer.

Thanks again for the information. Please PM me if you or anyone else has more information.

Steve

You’re welcome PL – and no, i am not. Just good with Google and i have my references neatly piled up next to my computer 🙂

Stephen, i don’t know if you are of any influence to the site i mentioned above, but it mentions
“…Again, this Lim 5 (Polish designation for the MiG 17F) was the last MiG 17 to fly for the entire Eastern Bloc…”
which is not true. Albania nominally still operates the MiG-17 in Chinese-built J-5 form, and these have flown after Poland’s definite MiG-17 retirement. It’s also not impossible that a few M-17s (unmanned target drones, rebuilt from retired MiG-17s) lingered on at the Russian test centre at Akhtubinsk.

Thank you very much, Arthur, you are a veritable mine of information!

Lim-5 1717 is now on the US civil register as N1717M, and is owned by… oh, wait: Stephen Patterson 😀
http://kcghostsquadron.airbase1.com/CAF-Plane-MIG17.htm

The Lim-5 (both 1717 and 1728 are of that breed) is a Polish licence-built MiG-17F, all built by PZL-Mielec. The Poles built a total of 477 Lim-5s from 1956 to 1960. Some of which were of the short-lived Lim-5M variety with the ugly thick inner wing for extra fuel (all later converted to either standard-Lim-5 or Lim-6bis), or of the Lim-5R recce variety with a camera in the fuselage. There also was the Lim-5P which was a licensed version of the radar-equipped MiG-17PF. Poland built 129 of these as interceptors. When they became obsolete in the air-to-air role, they were rebuilt as attack aircraft and were renamed Lim-6M.

After the Lim-5, the Lim-6 with a brake chute and other modification entered production. It initially also had the thick inner wing, but these were rejected and all were rebuilt with normal wings as Lim-6bis. Apart from the numerous Lim-5M and Lim-6 conversions, seventy new-built Lim-6bis left the factory until 1964.

MiG-17s of any kind (mostly of Polish and Chinese production though) have been entering the US at a steady pace ever since the late 1980s. In 1988, a company with the friendly title of Combat Core Certification Professionals (yes, CCCP 🙂 ) imported a bunch of Lim-5 and -6Ms in 1988 for the Defense Test and Support Evaluation Agency, together with a few old MiG-21s from both Poland and Hungary. These aircraft were all airworthy and took part during one exercise from Kirtland AFB, NM after which they were sold on the warbird market.

Because Poland was retiring it’s last Lims from the 1980s on (in 1991 three operational units still operated the type at Babimost, Bydgoscsz and Cewice-Semierowice) and these were all in a pretty good state, a lot of those later also found their way to the US. I reckon there should be more than 50 Lims in the US by now. I don’t know how many actually ended up flying, i tend to lose track of aircraft as soon as they end being military.

If we are talking Polish Migs…

…what happened to this bunch from 1995?

I was tootling along the back road from Tuscon to Phoenix, AZ, and at place called Coolidge came across these Mig 17’s all laid out in neat array. There were at least four more in the hangar.

This looked like a major business operation and I have wondered – did it flourish?

Mark

I found this one in the Tennessee Museum of Aviation, Sevierville last year. We only had time for a quick tour round, so I didn’t get any details. Would someone be kind enough to provide some details of this aircraft?

Originally posted by Arthur
Oooh… something for the parrafinheads!

What: The Polish air force’s last homebuilt MiG-17 in service, this being a Lim-5.
Location: Modlin, Poland. Back then home of Poland’s test unit, the 45 LEH (not too sure about the last two letters though).
Date: I think the aircraft got these markings in 1994, but in August 1995 it was still at Modlin and was actually being serviced inside the hangar in the background (which was when i saw it).

Very good Arthur, you get two out of three. If you could see the drop tanks the date is painted on there, 12 July 1993.

Any ideas where it is now?

Oooh… something for the parrafinheads!

What: The Polish air force’s last homebuilt MiG-17 in service, this being a Lim-5.
Location: Modlin, Poland. Back then home of Poland’s test unit, the 45 LEH (not too sure about the last two letters though).
Date: I think the aircraft got these markings in 1994, but in August 1995 it was still at Modlin and was actually being serviced inside the hangar in the background (which was when i saw it).

It says “Final LiM” in Polish, if that helps!
I suppose Poland built MiG-15s.

I Know…

Hi Steve
I KNOW!! I KNOW!!!
It says ‘I Hate Jealous Australians’
On the other side it says
‘Capitalist Exploiter of the Proletariat’
Am I close??
Andy

😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀