Depending on my company, either I like traffic lights or Sit on my face.

It’s not the prototype which now is at the Aviodrome, as that has a red/silver paintjob. Dayglo and black anti-glare was on the operational aircraft, so L-11 at the Militair Luchtvaart Museum at Kamp Zeist/Soesterberg. ‘Vreeburghal’ is the name of the hangar (= hal, as in ‘hall’) in which it’s preserved. Named after engineer Vreeburg 😉

So a Merc article then? Cool!

😀

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.

Aren’t we confusing the sort of Tu-22 to be replaced by the Su-34? The Flatface-Flanker doesn’t have the range nor payload to take the role of the Backfire, but it’s actually pretty comparable with the Blinder. Of course the latter has been retired for some time now, but with recce and EW suits fitted i think the Su-34 will make a lighter and cheaper replacement for the Blinder than the Tu-22M ever will. Especially since the only remaining variant of the Backfire in service is the Tu-22M3, which has capabilities far exceeding those of the Blinder.

Don’t know what you mean. Perhaps you can illustrate it with a picture?

I don’t know if you noticed, but i’ve only been trying to be silly. You haven’t seen me in an insulting mood, and so far you haven’t given me a reason for that anyway.