SSJ100 launches operations PAK FA two prototypes flying already ...

Yevgeny YEROKHIN
Photos by author
to its permanent station, Borisoglebsk, on
order of the Red Air Fleet’s chief of military
educational institutions in early April 1923.
The flying school was named after legendary
Soviet pilot Valery Chkalov later on. It was
converted into the Borisoglebsk Air Force
Academy after WWII. In summer 1970, it
started training its cadets on the L-29 jet
trainer. The academy underwent another
change on the verge of the 1990s, when it
was reformed into the 1080th Air Force
Training Centre named after Valery Chkalov
and fielded with advanced fourth-generation
MiG-29 fighters and, in February 1994,
Su-25 attack aircraft.
The 1080th Air Force Training Centre comprised
as many as six air bases in Borisoglebsk,
Buturlinovka, Bagai-Baranovka, Lebyazhye,
Tonkoye and Uprun. Its purpose was theoretical
and practical conversion of air force
academy graduates from the L-39 trainer
to RusAF’s up-to-date tactical aircraft –
MiG-29, Su-24 and Su-25. In 2000, the 2nd
Tactical Aviation Department of the Armavir
Military Aviation Institute, which trained personnel
for tactical bombers and ground attack
aircraft was established in Borisoglebsk. Flight
training was given on the L-39 and Su-25
in the 160th Training Air Regiment that was
activated as far back as 1971 as part of the
Borisoglebsk Air Force Academy.
Lately, the Air Force aircrew training system
has been changed as part of the reform
of the Russian Armed Forces. A decision
has been made to form the 786th Air Force
Training Centre for aircrew conversion
training (it absorbed the military posts in
Borisoglebsk and Michurinsk) and reforming
the 2nd department of the Armavir
Military Aviation Institute. Under the governmental
resolution dated 10 May 2001,
the department of the disbanded Armavir
Military Aviation Institute was assigned to
the Krasnodar Military Aviation Institute
as the 3rd Tactical Bomber and Attack
Aircraft Department. Its cadets learnt to fly
at training air regiments in Borisoglebsk and
Michurinsk.
Thus, there is a training air regiment
stationed in Borisoglebsk these days, providing
flying training to future attack air-
military aviation | report
craft and bomber pilots – cadets of the
3rd department of the Krasnodar affiliate
of the Prof. Zhukovsky & Gagarin Air
Force Command and Staff Academy. After
the Borisoglebsk instructor-pilots have
completed their conversion, cadets flight
training on cutting-edge Yak-130s shall be
launched here.
The Sokol plant has promised to complete
the construction, testing and delivery
of three production aircraft more not later
than June. “The Nizhny Novgorod-based
Sokol aircraft plant plans to deliver three
Yak-130 combat trainers to the Russian Air
Force and, thus, fulfil the contract for 12
aircraft of the type awarded by the Defence
Ministry”, Nizhny Novgorod Region
Industry and Innovation Minister Vladimir
Nefyodov told the RIA Novosti news agency
late in March.
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