Farewell of the MiG-21 - Pápa, August 24, 2000
After about forty years of service in the Hungarian Air Force the two remaining versions of the MiG-21, the BIS and the UM, were retired on August 24, 2000. Since the withdrawal of the type meant that the 47th Papa Tactical Fighter Wing was closed down, the members organized a spectacular show to see off not only their aircraft but also their unit. Col.-Gen. Lajos Fodor, the chief of staff of the Hungarian Defence Forces, had attended the briefing before the farewell display where the type withdrawal and the base closure was officially announced. Fodor thanked the personnel for their work and the Commander, Col. Jozsef Lanecker, recounted the nearly fifty years of the 47th Fighter Wing in his speech.
Among the guests were former pilots, technical officers and, notably, Bertalan Farkas and Bela Magyari, astronaut and trained astronaut respectively, who started their careers at the Papa base as well. The zone looked rather unusual for the arriving guests, family members, and enthusiasts. To honor the occasion, aircraft were lined up in two seemingly infinite rows. Among them were eight Su-22s and MiG23s, conserved MiG-21BISs and UMs, which flew at both Papa and Taszar air bases, and MiG-21MFs from the Kecskemet unit, which returned its fighters to Papa after the MiG-29s were put in service there and the MFs were retired together with all Su-22s and MiG23s of the HuAF in 1997. The 1874 serialled BIS wore the former Boszorkany (witch) squadron insigna and was displayed with full weapon load on an apron. Two aircraft received special farewell markings. MiG-21BIS serial 48 received a hawk on its fuselage and serial 6115 flew wearing the Hungarian national colors with the mark "1950-2000", the timeframe of the operation of the fighter wing at Papa, on the starboard side and "1961-2000" on the port side marking the years of service of the MiG-21 family in the HuAF.
UM serial 905 completed the weather recon flight. Following the pre-flight briefing the 24 pilots assigned to the farewell flight arrived at the zone. The MiG21s taxied out in a steady line for one final take-off. Maj. Tamas Kristof, who flew the solo display, left the zone last in the red-white-green MiG-21BIS. His solo demonstration, just like the series of three five-ship formation flypasses, was spectacular. The last five aircraft broke formation perpendicular to the runway just above the crowd and landed one by one. When the very last MiG-21 taxied back to the zone and put on the brakes hundreds of pigeons were released. With this the 47th Papa Tactical Fighter Wing completed its last flight.
» List of the participating aircraft
Abridged version of the article published in "Haditechnika" January 2001.