Posted on 04/02/2019 7:18:46 AM PDT by C19fan
On a barren hillside in northern Albania lies a portal to the country's communist past: a massive steel door creaks open to reveal a hidden former air base burrowed into the heart of the mountain. Made up of 600 metres (1,980 feet) of tunnels that once teemed with military life, the secret Gjader air base is now a depot for dozens of hulking communist-era MiG jets collecting dust in the darkness.
Three decades after shedding communism, Albanian authorities are still trying to sell off the Soviet and Chinese-made aircraft, of which there are dozens more in another nearby air base.
(Excerpt) Read more at ndtv.com ...
“But Danaj still dreams of seeing Gjader returned to its former glory. “The base could serve as a museum, but with its modern infrastructure, its tunnel system, it can be functional again and serve NATO,” he said.”
Reading is fundamental. He said he thought the underground facility and hangers could be useful to NATO, not the jets.
Let's just say no one is Russian to make them.
At least they picked up one thing from the US: this is capitalism at it’s best. I suspect they will be on QVC shortly.
rwood
The fuel prices will get you. We have a private military owner here. He bought a Yugoslavian trainer. He burns heating oil every other flight to save money. It’s an expensive toy.
He contacted a local Vietnam veteran F-4 pilot to help him train in it and the pilot told him he’d only do it if there was napalm involved. He eventually found a former S-3 pilot.
again ... as target practice?
Fixed locations are easy to identify and target.
LOL, yeah sure. Because NATO doesn’t have ANY fixed bases at all. They all drive around in EM-50s, just like in “Stripes”.
Mountain air bases have always been a bad idea as it requires much less attack power to seal off the entry / exit for the aircraft.
With fixed fields, at least you have several spots on the base that have to be targeted in order to shut down the base. Further, with short runway and VTOL aircraft, they can use virtually any road way of a few hundred meters for air operations.
Chick magnet
It will look great in your driveway.
“He contacted a local Vietnam veteran F-4 pilot to help him train in it and the pilot told him he’d only do it if there was napalm involved. He eventually found a former S-3 pilot.”
FreeRepublic, where you meet the best people in America!
Oh hell yeah!
Something to add to my Powerball list.
I worked with Don Evans when we were flying our instrumented Phoenix on F-14 #3. Great guy.
I said it would look good in his (Fido969) driveway.
I would never pay $11000 for that!
;)
MiG-15 pilots actually tried to out-dive the F-86 in combat over Korea. Unfortunately, several were killed because the MiG-15 became unstable above circa Mach 0.87. A redesigned wing and a somewhat longer fuselage made the MiG-17 a lot more stable at transonic speeds.
True that. Died of brain cancer, unfortunately . . .http://www.grummanpark.org/content/don-evans-grumman-test-pilot-–-flight-no-8
Dunno why I can’t make a link that works, but that’s the address of a web page dedicated to him.
[He contacted a local Vietnam veteran F-4 pilot to help him train in it and the pilot told him he’d only do it if there was napalm involved. ]
You just won’t give up, LOL. You didn’t read the story. And underground doesn’t have to mean airbase, sport. A lot of things get great protection from being underground... Cheyenne Mountain for one example. The guy said the facility and infrastructure could be useful to NATO.
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