Some more photos:

Inside Medivac (what is that display?…GPS maybe?)

That is the flying school at Vlora. That is where all the CJ-6s are based.

As for the Yak-18 which I saw at the Lapraka Aerodrome…when I went there the airport was still open and functioning. When you went there in 2001 the airport had been closed and was no longer used. Some Y-5s are still there…those that are no longer used…and I think eventually it will be torn down to make room for residential buildings which are being build all around the airport. I don’t think the Yak-18 was destroyed in the troubles of 97…but it could have been moved elsewhere and maybe it’ll end up in the AF Museum in 2006. Also I don’t know if there was only one Yak-18 or not…I only saw the nose of one sticking out from one of the hangars…but there may have been more in there or maybe more in Vlora.

I don’t know why Miroslav’s name is mentioned here. He is entiteled to whatever opinions he wants…but clearly he has no knowledge whatsoever of the Albanian military or its industries. So what does it matter if Miroslav says we didn’t? :p

I can tell you for a fact the first MiG-19 jet engines were produced in 1983. This was written with dates and etails on an article by the Albanian AF website…but unfrotunately that article is no longer on the site (since they redesigned the site and erased all the old articles…but it will appear again soon).

There was no buying parts from Egypt or Pakistan…that is nonsense. If we were going to do that after 1992…might as well just go to China and do it.

And yes…today about half the fleet of MiG-19s is operations…but that is today in 2005. Kucova stopped producing parts in 1992. So what do you think was the operational situation in 1992? Probably 90-100% of the MiG-19s operational. There was no canibalizing as far as I know…becasue there was no need to…we produced our own parts.

The only trouble we had was with the MiG-21s…which is why few of them are operational. Kucova didn’t produce engines for them and probably had trouble with their parts too. The first new engines we got for them was afer communism fell from Germany…about 20 engines for them…and thwese were put on 4 MiG-21s (which are the 4 MiG-21s which are counted as operational today…although MiG-21s no longer fly operationally since they are due to be withdrawn within the next couple of years).

Anyway…more pictures to follow soon.

Miroslav as always your imput is most welcomed… :rolleyes:

How exactly do you know the factory at Kucova “doesn’t build anything major”? Can you even point at Kucova on a map of Albania? The factory was modernized in 1983 with Swedesh machinery…it doesn’t mean the Swedes had to know anything about building Soviet or Chinese aircraft. The Swedes also modernized the explosives and shell making factories and a contract was signed with Bofors in 1982 to produce their explosives.

The factory at Kucova hasn’t build much since 1992 when communism fell…but it still keeps repairing aircraft…and now it is being put back into operation as a Turkish and German firm are undertaking its modernization and equipping it with a line to produce parts for Bell helicopters. The same is happening with other military industries…such as the ammunition factory at Polican which is being modernized under a contract by the Turks to produce ammunition for them there.

Jet engines havn’t been produced at Kucova since 1992…and since then the main source for jet engines has been Germany…which as far as I know gave us 20 engines for MiG-21s (and 4 of them have been equipped with these engines).

I am always amazed by the way the various jets of the AAF were matained in pristine conditions. It seems they rreally had very skilled personnel. Were they trained in China for that ?

They were trained in China…but they are also very skilled…as well as we have an indigenous aviation industry which produces pretty much all the parts for these aircraft. In fact…I’m amazed why we didn’t produce whole aircraft too because the factory at Kucova produces everything for these jets…including the jet engines. In 1983 the factory was modernized with Swedesh equipment for making parts…and now the factory is being modernized to produce parts for Bell helicopters.

There was no shooting war between Yugoslavia and Italy or the Allies. Miroslav is misinterpreting the events entirely. The zone was occupied by Yugoslav partisans in 1945…and kept by them until eventually a treaty was agreed upon by both sides. The US aircraft being shot down were for other purposes…as the US had other issues with Yugoslavia besides Trieste.

But anyway…let not chnage the subject please.

Tito also planned an invasion of Albania but it never happened. He wanted Albania to become the 7th republic of Yugoslavia. I wish he had invaded, the people of Albania would have been much better off with Yugoslavia than under that crazy kook Hoxha.

Thank you again for your…as always…insightful comments. Yugoslavia not only was in no position to invade Albania…but instead required Albanian partisans to liberate Kosova and parts of Bosnia. But then again…that isn’t the topic of this thread now is it?

Is it true that Albania recieved 1 two-seater version (FT-6) of the Shenyang F-6 and some of the reconnaissance version FZ-6?

I don’t know about the recon planes…but we defenatly did NOT recieve a two-seater F-6.

Glanini those are great pictures of AAF planes…where did you find them?
I don’t know about the story of two F-5s being shot down over Albania…if they were then I’m sure they would have come out by now. There were a lot of secret “engagements” during the Cold War…but most of them have come into light in the past 15 years and most of them have been much more minor than this. If it resulted in someone being killed, captured, or equipment being shot down or captured…we in Albania would know about it by now. Maybe these losses were in Yugoslavia…I don’t know about that.

whats the point, they can give you all the free stuff in the world, its no good when its scrap metal.it costs some countries less to give albania their old aircraft than to scrap them.

Ok…so AB-206s, AB-205s and in the near future AB-212s and AB-412s are “scrap metal”. Thank you Osa for your…as usual…insightful comments…

Serisolly…make some serious comments please…not rubish.

You claim you have all these different types in operation. How many are airworthey.

They’r all air worthy…just a couple of months ago probably more than half the entire fleet flew non-stop missions for a period of 10 days to reliev villages which were trapped by snow.

Whats the potential of these aircraft. You want to join nato but how you gona do that when none of your aircraft meet nato standards, if so which ones.

Osa please THINK before you type things. What do you mean none of our helicopters are to NATO standards? Which standrads are these? The standrads that the entire Italian helicopter fleet is made up of these exact same types?

Show us some facts, dont jus spin , pictures are all well and good but they dont tell us any thing apart from the fact that these aircraft are in albania.

What do you want to know Osa…you ask and I’ll tell… :rolleyes:

Here are some interesting pictures:

The first helicopters in Albania…Mi-1s delivered sometimesin the 50s…and then withdrawn from service a few years later (don’t know why)