Some of the footage is from the 1981 movie "Gjurme ne kaltersi". There is a true story in the movie. One albanian pilot managed to land a Mig 15 without any damages after his engine shut down during a military exercise training.We managed to keep these aircrafts in air even after the relations with China were over and considering that Albania is a small country. This video really made me nostalgic since some of my close relatives were in the Albanian air force at that time. Thank you !
For anyone that's interested, pretty much all the aircraft in this video aren't actually Soviet they're Chinese. This is because during 1962 Albanian and Russian relations soured which happend due to disagrements over marxist doctrine. Essentially this put Albania into political isolation with their only ally left being China who came in and provided Albania with most of it's military equipment airforce included the types shown in the video are: Shengyang J2 (a licensed produced copy of the Mig 15 bis) Shengyang J5 (a licensed produced copy of the Mig 17F (this one has an afterburner)) Shenyang J6C (an upgraded J6 (comparable to the Mig19S) with better engines and the ability to carry missiles) Chengdu J7 (a licensed produced copy of the Mig 21F-13)
@@Tigershark_3082 no, los albaneses tuvieron el F-7A, la copia casi exacta del MiG-21F-13 soviético, fueron los primeros que construyeron los chinos (incluso dentro de los primeros lotes de aviones eran kits de origen soviético para ensamblar en China justo antes de la ruptura de la URSS y la RPC). Los primeros se llamaban J-7 "sin sufijo", eran unidades de preserie, aproximadamente 30 fueron construidos por Shenyang a fines de los 60s (la fábrica de Chengdu no estaba disponible en ése momento), una docena de estos fueron reacondicionados y vendidos a Albania con el nombre de F-7A.
Soviet Union: hmm, we don’t need that plane | Also Soviet Union: THEY DONT SUSPECT ANYTHING, GET THE VODKA AND BEARS, WE NEED TO MAKE AS MUCH OF THESE AS POSSIBLE
"Nga pilotet duhet te mos njihet, liberalizmi, indisiplinimi, si ne jete, si ne shkolle, ashtu edhe ne fluturim." - Enver Hoxha Excellent video, as always.
This kind of videos got me into plastic models. I'm already the proud owner of two 1/72 scale MiG-21 and MiG-31. After finals I'm going definitly for either a MiG-15 or a Sturmovik.
I believe it. None of those markings looked they're from the Soviet Union. I didn't recognize the picture of their leader. I try looking at other Warsaw pact roundels and none of the match, but the Albanian roundel matches. Thanks for cluing me in! Edit: I tried looking at some of the larger Warsaw pact nations and the roundels didn't match.
I can't get over how beautiful the MiG-19 is. An effective bird for her time, with firepower as well as looks. But all that pales in comparison to her successor. Another fine video btw.
@John Streyn more like licensed versions, the soviets were aiding China during the 50s until the sino Soviet split. The Shenyang j6 (the Chinese version of the mig 19) was the backbone of the Chinese air force for a couple of decades.
When I was still at school, I was wondering sometimes if I was weird to love this era's MiGs (15 to 19). Thanks to youtube and the comments under these videos, I found out I was never alone ✌🏻☮
This is very good video showing the not very known Albanian Air Force. Sadly they dont have any fighter jets currently in service, only few helicopters. I could be said that their Air Force was "canceled."
I wouldve never guessed this was about Albania, considering theres such a small quantity of content regarding cold war Albania, grats on the good work as always Mauzer
This movie was our version of "Top Gun". It used to give me the chills and was my favroite movie when i was a kid. Albania today is only a shadow. Once there was a really strong nation. (For only the second and last time in history after Skanderbeg)
Life of a pilot wasn’t easy, believe me. You may would be flying in a beautiful plane but you have to constantly train, make fly-outs, educate and polish your knowledge, and all of that may be wasted for nothing when some mig/etc hits your back from 2 miles away.
@@avgVar it's kind of crazy, cause during the vietnam war, american pilots became A-dime-a-dozen sort of thing. They no longer new how to dogfight, and their training wasn't too great. That's the reason the Air Force got decimated during all of Vietnam. The Navy introduced the Top Gun fighter program sometime close to the end, but their results instantly got better. The Navy (which was using the F-4C at this time) was doing better than the Air Force (even though the AF had a superior version of the Phantom, the F-4E)
@@Tigershark_3082 Pilots werent trained to dogfight until the late 60s, when Korean War and World War 2 veterans taught pilots how to dogfight, thanks to their jets like the F-4 Phantom II having guns and missiles, instead of missiles only.
Phantom-051-plane guy it’s not that simple, the USAF has much higher casualties than the navy primarily because North Vietnamese early warning radar could detect US all the way into Thai airspace where their bases were located, which allowed the radar operators to vector their migs into a intercept course usually from behind or to the side of the incoming aircraft, they would engage one or 2 targets then retreat into friendly airspace, some 80% of kills were like this, the navy had no such problem because they had the luxury of being able to attack from anywhere off a carrier giving the enemy little to no time to intercept their strikes. this is not to say the navy was bad or the Air Force but the North Vietnamese were able to take advantage of the short comings of US information gathering and adequate radars, the eventual introduction of AWACS aircraft would cover this pitfall
Забавно что ни в Албании, ни в Югославии не переводили надписи внутри кабин истребителей, т.е. в Юго-мигах всё было написано по-русски, а в Албанских, судя по видео - по-китайски
Those MIG-15s are so sexy and capable. Love the story of the engines - Stalin asks the UK for plans and copies of the RR Nene half jokingly and - surprise - they give him exactly what he wanted!
Thank you China for provide our country Albania with Shenyang j-6 (Mig 19) and Chengdu j7 (Mig 21) in 60s and 70s. We were the strongest in Balkan at this period. 🇦🇱🤝🇨🇳
Bellissimo, ai quei tempi c' era l' esercito, e no come oggi ché stiamo con sedere per terra. Ho fatto militare a Gjader. Quei aerei gli ho toccato con la mano.
