| Light Combat Aviation Squadron of 5th Air Command Vazduhoplovna eskadrila lake borbene avijacije 5. vazduhoplovne komande | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1953–1961 |
| Disbanded | 1961 |
| Country |  |
| Branch | Yugoslav Air Force |
| Type | Squadron |
| Role | Training |
| Part of | 5th Air Command |
| Garrison/HQ | Pleso |
The Light Combat Aviation Squadron of 5th Air Command ( Serbo-Croatian: Vazduhoplovna eskadrila lake borbene avijacije 5. vazduhoplovne komande / Ваздухопловна ескадрила лаке борбене авијације 5. ваздухопловне команде) was an aviation squadron of Yugoslav Air Force formed in 1953 at Pleso airfield as the Training Squadron of 32nd Aviation Division ( Serbo-Croatian: Trenažna eskadrila 32. vazduhoplovne divizije / Тренажна ескадрила 32. ваздухопловне дивизије).
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The squadron was part of 32nd Aviation Division. It was equipped with Soviet-made Yakovlev Yak-9U fighter trainers and British de Havilland Mosquito fighters. [1]
The 32nd Aviation Division was a unit originally established in 1945 as the 4th Aviation Bomber Division.
The Yakovlev Yak-9 was a single-engine fighter aircraft used by the Soviet Union in World War II and after. Fundamentally a lighter development of the Yak-7 with the same armament, it arrived at the front at the end of 1942. The Yak-9 had a lowered rear fuselage decking and all-around vision canopy. Its lighter airframe gave the new fighter a flexibility that previous models had lacked. The Yak-9 was the most mass-produced Soviet fighter of all time. It remained in production from 1942 to 1948, with 16,769 built. Towards the end of the war, the Yak-9 was the first Soviet aircraft to shoot down a Messerschmitt Me 262 jet. Following World War II, it was used by the North Korean Air Force during the Korean War.
The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito is a British twin-engine shoulder-winged multi-role combat aircraft, introduced during the Second World War, unusual in that its frame is constructed mostly of wood. It was nicknamed The Wooden Wonder, or "Mossie". Lord Beaverbrook, Minister of Aircraft Production, nicknamed it "Freeman's Folly", alluding to Air Chief Marshal Sir Wilfred Freeman, who defended Geoffrey de Havilland and his design concept against orders to scrap the project. In 1941 it was one of the fastest operational aircraft in the world.
In 1959, under the Drvar reorganization plan of the Yugoslav Air Force, the training squadron became the Light Combat Aviation Squadron of 5th Air Command. It was disbanded in April 1961. [2]