Sky is no Limit : Russia celebrates century of its Air Force

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100 years in the sky: centenary of Russian Air Force


Sky jubilee: Russia celebrates century of its Air Force (PHOTOS, VIDEO) — RT

Official celebrations of the centenary of the Russian Air Force came to an end on Sunday. The main event of the day was a large programme of flights at the Zhukovsky air field (town to the south-east of Moscow).

Foreign aircraft fans know this air field as the site of the MAX air show. Combat and training planes, various types of helicopters with Russian and foreign crews took part in today's festival.

Tens of thousands of spectators came to Zhukovsky to watch the magnificent show. It was opened by parachute jumpers who landed with huge flags of Russia, the Russian Ministry of Defence and the Russian Air Force. Then, six Sukhoi-25 jets flew over the air field and gave the sky the colours of the Russian tricolour. Next a group of 21 jets – MiG-29, Sukhoi-25 and Sukhoi-27 – flew over the spectators forming the figure 100.

Today, the spectators saw supersonic missile-carrying bombers Tupolev-22 and strategic bombers Tupolev-95 and Tupolev-160, as well as heavy cargo aircraft Antonov-26, Antonov-12, Antonov-22 Antey, Antonov-124 Ruslan and Antonov-2 biplane. The spectators also watched a retro programme which demonstrated the history of the Russian and world aviation. The Voice of Russia correspondent Ilya Kramnik comments:

"During today's festival dedicated to the centenary of the Russian Air Force, the spectators had an opportunity to watch practically the entire history of aviation over the last 100 years because old aircraft also took part in the show. The oldest plane that rose into the sky today was famous Bleriot XI made by a French designer who was the first to cross the English Channel aboard his own plane in 1909. Aircraft of that type became the first planes of the Russian Air Force. The Russian Ministry of Defence bought 15 of those planes then and Russian pilots were trained aboard those aircraft until the beginning of WW1."

Announcer: The spectators were especially excited by the performance of the best crews from the UK, France, Turkey, Poland, Latvia, Italy and Finland. The stunts brought a storm of applause of the happy audience. The spectators were especially interested in old aircraft of the periods of WW1 and WW2. They also enjoyed seeing the aircraft at close quarters.

The culmination of the festival was the performance of the world famous pilot groups Russian Knights aboard Sukhoi-27 and Swifts aboard MiG-29.