The flight back from the 100th anniversary Air Show of the Serbian AIr Force from Batjanica was with mixed emotions. There were some very rare and unique aircraft and presentations to see, as a ‘dogfight’ between a MiG-21 and two MiG-29s, or local build and rare types such as the Orao and the Super Galeb.

Where? Belgrade, Serbia
When? 02/09/2012

However, as I try to bring back memories and photos for showing them here, getting those photos and the related photo opportunities were very rare and had hard to be fought for. A very crowded static display, two separate and quite distant runways and a hazy sky were not the best ingredients for some nice shots.

However, it all changed on Sunday afternoon when most of the participants taxied back towards the crowdline … but at that time I was not on the airfield anymore. However…

Oraos and Super Galebs did some air-ground attack demonstrations, including the release of flares and heavy maneuvers:

Nevertheless there some nice moments on the ground and in the air when the Serbian Air Force presented their hardware. Amongst the photographers the efforts of the ground personal at the end of the Saturday’s showday to properly ‘dress’ the MiGs in the static display area will be long remembered for.

Obviously there were also many international display presentations such as a Italian Eurofighter Typhoon, a Danish F-16, Hungarian Gripen or the Austrian Saab105OE. As there are other events where these can be photographed better this here is just a small collection from all of them.

A rather strange view in the static display were two USAF F-16 from Aviano, only a little more than ten years after the NATO attacks against Serbia. Especially if you did visit the Aeronautical Museum near Belgrade’s airport before the show, were the tail of a shot-down Aviano F-16 and parts of the downed F-117 are part of the display. Furthermore traces of this war still show on the airfield’s infrastructure.

In the end, the show was not that bad, but some efforts had to be made to bring back some nice stuff that took some time. And with the planned phasing out of the MiG-21 at the end of this year there will be one attraction less for the next event!