The Polish Air Force (Siły Powietrzne) will celebrate it’s 100th anniversary during Radom International Airshow this august. According to the first news and rumours, the visitors of the show can expect to see more than 10 aerobatic displays teams (including Patrouille Suisse, Patrulla Águila already confirmed) over Radom Airport.
Besides the major anniversary event, the air force also preparing for an aircraft debut during this very important airshow. The audience of the next Radom Airshow will see first time the new advanced jet trainer type of the Polish Air Force, the Leonardo M-346 “Bielik”, what is also called the “Master”. The Polish Bielik pilots will show their skills in the sky with the new type performing solo display and flypast, but the visitors can also see the aircraft up close on the static display.
Last year, the Italian company Leonardo- Finmeccanica participated on Radom International Airshow with the M-346 Master (CSX55225) on the dynamic display programe with a test pilot in the cockpit.
The new Bielik’s are based in Deblin Air Force Base, and entered into service with the 4th Training Wing Squadron from this month used by the Polish Air Force Academy. The air force ordered 8 M-346 Masters in 2013 and the deliveries of the eight aircrafts are completed by November 2017. This year, on the 10th of January, Poland issued an invitation to Leonardo to participate in talks regarding the delivery of eight more M-346 advanced jet trainer aircraft.
The first Polish M-346. Photo: Pawel Bondaryk
The Alenia Aermacchi M-346 Master is a military twin-engine transonic trainer aircraft. Originally co-developed with Yakovlev as the Yak/AEM-130, the partnership was dissolved in 2000 and Alenia Aermacchi proceeded to separately develop the M-346 Master, while Yakolev continued work on the Yakovlev Yak-130. The first flight of the M-346 was performed in 2004. The type is currently operated by the air forces of Italy, Israel, Singapore, and Poland. Since 2016 the manufacturer became Leonardo-Finmeccanica as Alenia Aermacchi merged into the new Finmeccanica, finally rebranded as Leonardo in 2017. (info: Wiki)
Featured Photo: Andrzej Rogucki
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