First ever picture gallery of Polish F16s during training (high volume)

mon.gov.pl ^ | 2007-10-30

[Greg F]

Cool. I think we still deal with the Polish Air Force as a client. I’ll forward that to the guy that works with them.

[TheThirdRuffian]

Did these guys originally learn to fly on Soviet jets?

Curious if these are former foes.

[1rudeboy]

The Poles flew Soviet jets back in the day, but the Poles I met who were training for the F-16 a few years ago in Springfield, Ill., looked very young . . . so I doubt there are many left who have flown MiG's.

[SJSAMPLE]

MiG-29s, IIRC.

Same thing with East Germany.
Now, it’s common to see MiG-29s participating in NATO exercises.

Very crazy times.
I miss the Cold War.

[chrisser]

Thanks Lizol!

[True Republican Patriot]

FANTASTIC!!!

[lizol]

They definitely originally learned to fly on Soviet-made jets, mostly Mig 29s (as Polish Air Force used to be equipped only with them before we bought F16s).

But I think most of those, who fly F16 today are to young to be “former foes”.

You know - 18 years have gone.

[lizol]

[SFC Chromey]

Same with Hungarian Air Force. We had F16’s flying alongside their MIG-29’s, definitely a sight to behold. Funny thing is, these guys in Hungary and Poland are happy they are on OUR side now!

[mowowie]

Those are some sweet shots!

[Gator101]

Repeat please

[lizol]

Actually - these are Spitfires of the Polish 303 fighter squadron.

Kind of ancestors of today’s Polish F16s :-)

[TheThirdRuffian]

I would be interested to hear how they thought the planes compared, and how they think they would have fared 18 years ago.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

I’m disappointed. I was hoping for a little humor.

[Gator101]

Yep. The Poles have already shown they can handle western fighters.

One of my favorite war movie scenes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXf1bhEEXd0

[ArrogantBustard]

OOOOOOOHhhhhhh! AAaaaahhhhhh!

Those are some very nice pictures ... nice planes, too. Good to see yet another friend defending their skies with Vipers.

[Gator101]

Looks like I remembered the scene wrong — they were flying Hurricanes and not Spitfires.

[lizol]

They were flying first Hurricanes, then Spitfires, and then Mustangs.

[Bringbackthedraft]

Curious if these are former foes. ................. I was once told by a colleague, when an America or NATO pilot flew by the border of the Eastern Europeans, they were intercepted by Russian Pilots gave them nasty hand gestures, German Pilots who played chicken with them and Polish Pilots who waved and smiled.