Target tug aircraft flies again
Members of the Air Force and the Air Defence of the Armed Forces of Serbia have conducted their first flight in their special aircraft – a target tug aircraft “Super Seagull” N-62T which, after years long break and the end of its repairing, flies again in Formation 252 of the educational training aviation escadrille of the 204th Airforce Brigade at the Batajnica Airport.The target tug N-62T is unique in the Armed Forces of Serbia as a part of a system that consists of the Airforce itself, a target tug device UVM-82 and the target itself, and its basic use is to enable the most realistic conditions for training of units of the Air Defence artillery that can, in realistic conditions, do live firing at a “live target” that the aircraft pulls on a cable up to 2,000 meters long. The aircraft has the option of carrying and launching a radio-guided target for fire training of the Fighter Aviation.
Bringing the N-62T back into use has manifold significance for the Air Force and the Air Defence of the Armed Forces of Serbia. Given that this is a particularly specific mean, its inclusion in arms opens a possibility of the international military cooperation as well, i. e. of giving the service of target tugging to the states that don’t have this opportunity in their armed forces.
The crew of the aircraft “Super Seagull N-62T consists of two members: a pilot and a flying specialist operator; this is the only jet in the formation of the Serbian Armed Forces whose crew includes, aside from a pilot officer, noncommissioned officers who are chosen among the best of the technical formation of escadrilles and receive their rank after ending the specialist training.
Before acquiring the aircraft, and after the end of the repairing in the overhaul facility “Moma Stanojlovic”, two test flights were conducted at the 252nd educational training aviation escadrille. Aside from checking all the aircrafts and replacement of all the system and out of due components, the target tug aircraft “Super Seagull” was painted in a special paint scheme in order to be easily spotted from the ground; the attractiveness side wasn’t neglected, either, so the tail of the aircraft is adorned in stylized national symbols. The new pattern of the Super Seagull has been envisioned by Major Robert Jelen from the 252nd escadrille, in cooperation with his colleagues. 