BOXART STORY

#70141

Brandenburg fighters

above the beach

There’s a sunny summer day and nothing

disturbs the calm on the beaches of the

Baltic Sea but the splashing of the waves

and excited children's screams. But shortly

after noon, it seems to thunder in the distance. The sky is almost cloudless, no one

expects a thunderstorm, and the tourists

look around in wonder. In the coming seconds the sound intensifies into a loud roar

and two fighters from the “Brandenburg Air

Regiment" fly over the beach at a height of

only a few dozen meters. Their return from

live-firing the missiles over the Baltic Sea

cheers the children and wakes up all the

sleepers. "We are here to defend you, if necessary!", that’s the meaning of the Polish

pilots' low pass...

Piotr Forkasiewicz’s drawings always have

“something extra” in them, and this very

dynamic picture of a pair of MiG-21MFs from

the 11 BPLM is not different. What kind of unit

was it and what were the fates of the aircraft

in the foreground of the drawing?

In the second half of the 1960s, the Polish Air Force underwent a reorganization.

The 11 Pułk Lotnictwa Myśliwskiego (PLM;

Fighter Air Regiment) stationed in Dębrzno was transformed into the 9 PLM, while

3 PLM, based at Strachowice, became the

11 BPLM (Brandenburski Pułk Lotnictwa

Myśliwskiego, Brandenburg Fighter Air Regiment). In 1973, the unit was fully restored

to its historical name and until September

1991 was officially called 11 Brandenburski

Pułk Lotnictwa Myśliwskiego im Osadników

34

INFO Eduard

Ziemi Dolnośląskiej (Brandenburg Fighter

Air Regiment in the name of the Settlers

of Lower Silesia). In 1966, while it still had

the designation 3 PLM, the first MiG-21F-13

aircraft were taken over from other regiments converting to more modern versions of this type. In the late 1960s and early

1970s, the 11 BPLM was equipped with the

first MiG-21PF and MiG-21PFM aircraft, and

around 1980 the regiment was equipped with

the first MiG-21M and MiG-21MF aircraft.

In 1991, the 11 BPLM was equipped with 24

MiG-21MFs, five MiG-21UMs and four TS-11

Iskras training aircraft. In the late 1990s, the

11 BPLM was part of BPLM 3 Korpus Oborony

Powietrznej Kraju (OPK; Air Defence Force)

with its headquarters in Wroclaw. It included

only one other air unit, 62 PLM in Krzesiny.

In the 1990s, after the 39 PLM in Mierzęcice

was disbanded, the 2 eskadrą (Squadron) of

the 11 BPLM was moved to this base, about

100 km away. This echelon included, among

others, the aircraft serial number 96007600.

Its first user was 34 PLM based at the Gdynia-Babie Doły. In June 1980 this aircraft was

transferred to the 26 PLM, but the following

year it was handed over to the 10 PLM in

Łask. In the period from February 27, 1986, to

April 6, 1987, it underwent an overhaul at the

WZL-3 Dęblin maintenance center and was

subsequently handed over to the 11 BPLM,

where it was assigned to the second squadron and later sent with it to the detachment

in Mierzęcice. There it flew until October

1998, after which it was handed over to the

Text: Richard Plos

Illustration: Piotr Forkasiewicz

Army Property Agency, from which it was

purchased in 1999 by the American collector

George Gould. The aircraft was transported

to Galveston Airport in Texas and loaned to

the Lone Star Flight Museum there.

When in the fall of 2008 Hurricane Ike started to devastate the Texas coast, all of the

museum’s aircraft in airworthy condition

were flown to safer places. However, the

MiG-21MF No. 7600 was not airworthy... The

hangar in which it was kept was flooded by

an 8.2 ft (2.5 m) wave and the aircraft was

severely damaged. The owner subsequently

donated it unrepaired to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in Oregon. The restoration team in Marana, Arizona, had to find

a new wing and tail for it. The Polish markings were deleted and the aircraft was

given two-tone green camouflage, Soviet

insignia and the red, white-lined number

84. This was the livery previously flown by

Mig-21 in the US Air Force’s “Red Eagle”

squadron. This unit conducted simulated

dogfights with American aircraft, and this

livery was chosen because one of the pilots

of this unit was a member of the museum’s

board. This, aircraft No. 7600 eventually survived its original unit, albeit in a modified

form and as a museum exhibit. In 1999, the

11 BPLM was disbanded and all of its remaining MiG-21MFs were transferred to the

3 PLM (former 62 PLM) in Krzesiny and

10 PLM in Łask. Thus, all MiG-21MFs of the

Polish Air Force in use at that time were

concentrated in these two regiments.

August 2022