21.05.2021.

Farewell to legendary fighter aircraft MiG-21

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Nebojša Stefanović, PhD, and the Air Force and Air Defence Commander, Lieutenant General Duško Žarković, attended today the Mig-21 farewell ceremony entitled "Trace in Infinity" at the "Colonel Pilot Milenko Pavlović" military airport. The event symbolically marked the end of the aircraft’s service life in our Air Force.

Our pilots have guarded the sky with the help of this great aircraft for 58 years. In the period from 1962 to 1986, 261 aircraft of this type were purchased from the then Soviet Union. It is the second generation supersonic jet, the holder of several records and the most-produced aircraft in aviation history (number built: 11,496, versions: 32). It has been used for six decades in the air forces of more than 60 countries on four continents, and is still used in many of them today.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Dejan Beda, Assistant Commander for Operations, 204th Air Brigade, who spent many years in MiG-21’s cockpit, the story of the "twenty-one" is inextricably linked to the Batajnica airport because every MiG-21 that ever arrived in our military aviation took off and landed on that runway.

- The first unit to be equipped with 41 MiG-21 F-13s was the 204th Fighter Aviation Regiment. By the end of 1964, that regiment had three squadrons armed with these aircraft. It is interesting that for the first four years there were no two-seaters, the pilots were trained and underwent refresher training on US-made TV-2 aircraft - Colonel Beda pointed out.

Boriša Mandić, a former military pilot and MiG-21 instructor, greeted the gathering on behalf of the "Pilot Mihajlo Petrović" Aviation Foundation and the Association of Supersonic Pilots.

– The veteran behind us has finished its career and is going down in history, not retirement. Today, we have mixed feelings, at least us who have spent our entire careers in the cockpit of this supersonic jet aircraft. But that veteran has indeed left an indelible trace in the skies of this country - said Mandić and emphasized that this was exactly why this event was called "Trace in Infinity".

A traditional water salute was given to the legendary MiG-21, symbolically marking this aircraft’s long service life in our military aviation.