Turkish Air Force 100 Years Air Show at Izmir-Cigli
The Turkish Airforce was formed in 1911 when Turkey was still part of the Ottoman Empire and is this year celebrating 100 years with a number of airshows and events during 2011. The main event was held at Izmir-Cigli over the first weekend in June and RAPCON was invited to Turkey to cover this excellent airshow. The weather was fine throughout.
As you would expect the main participants came from the host nation but there were several very interesting aircraft from Pakistan, Bulgaria, Algeria, Jordan, Croatia and Serbia to name a few.
Static Display
The Turkish Airforce displayed aircraft from all its inservice types and these were joined by army and navy aircraft. Of particular note was F-16D 07-1015 which is the latest Block 52 aircraft for the Turkish Airforce and was delivered early for this show and carried no squadron marks.Also in the static was a Boeing 737 Wedgetail aircraft of which four are on order. Also present on Saturday was Airbus A400M EC-404 .Both these aircraft had a Turkish roundels affixed in static but removed before departure.
Other aircraft displayed were
C-130E Hercules, 63-3188
C-160 Transall, 69-034
CN-235, 97-134
KC-135, 60-0326
T-41D Mescalero , 72-1420
SIAI Machetti SF-260D x3, 95-0830 91-0779 93-0825
KT-1T Wongbi x4, 11-10 10-05 10-07 11-09
T-37 x3, 17987 12804 39840
T-38 x4, 38231 38115 23611 38173
F-16C, 94-0088
F-16D, 07-1015
F-4E, 73-1022
RF-4E, 69-7512
F-5B, 0449
AS532UL Cougar 01-2517
Bell UH-1H 13065
Turkish Navy
Socata TB-20 606
S-70B Seahawk TCB 60
Turkish Coastguard
AB412 SAR TCSF 502
Turkish Army
Bell AH-1P 13065
International Static
Algeria
C-130H 7T-WHJ 4928
Austria
Saab 105OE C
Bulgaria
C-27J 073
Mig 29UB 14 White
PC-9M 664
Hungary
AN-26 405
SAAB Gripen 42
Germany
Eurofighter x2 31+17 31+19
Jordan
F-16 x2 131 137
Pakistan
JF-17 10-116
Poland
CN-235 11
RAF
Tornado GR-4 ZD 847
Romania
AN-26 810
IAR90 712
Serbia
AN-26 71386
Slovakia
AN-26 2506
Civilian
Airbus A400M EC-404
Boeing 737 Wedgetail N360BJ
Flying Display
There was a full days flying display including all the major display teams including The USAF Thunderbirds, The Red Arrows, Patrouille de France, Frecce Tricolori, Spanish Aguila, Team Iskra from Poland, Wings of Storm from Croatia, and of course the host nations Turkish Stars.This is the first time I have seen the Croation team with their PC-9s
.The team displays were intermingled with solo displays from F-16s from Pakistan, Netherlands, Belgium and most notably the Turkish Airforce whose Solo-Turk display rehearsal on Friday represented the first public display by a Turkish F-16 and what a dynamic display it turned out to be. F-16C 91-0011 from 134 Filo was painted in a special scheme to mark 100 years of Turkish Airforce with grey silver and black stripes along the fuselage and a striking golden Eagles head on the tail. It was very well displayed by BNB Mural Keles with I understand help in the flight display by the Netherlands Airforce whose influence was apparent in the display. The spare aircraft was 89-0022 in normal colour scheme.
Another first was the display by Pakistan JF-17 Thunder.three of which attended the show 10-116 on static display and 09-112 and 10-114 doing the displays. Coming from 26 Squadron Black Spiders at Peshawar it put on a spirited display. Also from Pakistan from 11 Squadron Arrows based at Mushaf came two F-16As 85726 and 85728 which both did displays over the weekend
Other notable displays came from Italy with Typhoon, AMX and C-27J, Romanian IAR90, Austrian SAAB 105, and the Turkish Airforce T-34 opened the show.
Turkish Airforce Flypast
On the Saturday only the Turkish Airforce made a flypast of most of the aircraft in its inventory at present comprising Eurocopter Cougar x3, cessnaT-41D Mescalero x3, SIAI Machetti SF-260D x3, KT-1T Wongbi x3, T-37 x3. T-38 x3, CN-235-100, C-160 Transall, C-130 Hercules, KC-135, F-16 x3, F-4 x3 and F-5 x3
Support
Some interesting aircraft also appeared as support
Belgium C-130H CH-09
Croatia AN-32 727
Denmark C-130J B-538 supporting Red Arrows
Italy C-130Js 46-55 and 46-59
Jordan C-130H 344
Pakistan IL-78 R09-001, C-130 4180 and C-130 4153
Turkey C-130B 58-0736 and C-130B 57-0527
Spain CN-235 35-40