Tanzanian Air Force

 

I had landed in Dar es Salaam airport and was busy refueling the plane when I heard a screaming noise, high pitched, and coming quite fast. Planes are supposed to taxi at a brisk pace according to the book…well this one was running fast. A Mig 19 from the Tanzanian Air Force, or should I say a Shenyang J6 made in China under license. Early 50’s technology but supersonic though. One had taken off just before me landing, did a long turn and zoomed above the airport. Funny enough, the military pilots used a special frequency to talk with the controller and we have to rely on him to pass on the information, which I hate. In bad weather I’d be scared.

 

 

 

the silver things below the wings are not bombs, luckily, but fuel tanks.

 

then another one taxied by, at least 20 min later, fast moving too.

 

 

last time I saw for a show during independence day, they wore a

dull grey painting.

 

 

twin jet engines. Each of the jets did a pass above the terminal.

Some FVIP’s were around.

 

the last one was all white. Wonder why. Here it is visible that the second

pilot in the backseat (maybe not a pilot though) wears a leather helmet! The

front pilot wears a typical white helmet. But one the previous aircraft showed

a pilot with a leather one too. Very modern, on a jet!

 

in Mwanza, there are a lot of Mig 21’s, or Chinese make J7’s, rotting on a far corner

of the airport. They are supposedly newer than the Mig 19 but many crashed,

specially in lake Victoria after take off. They have only one engine.

The ejection seats rarely worked. I’ve neverseen any flying here in 10 years anyway.

Tanzania is far from being the only country to use these antiques, and to be fair,

the technology might old but they’ve been produced for many years in China.

Comments

[Paul Anderson]

Tanzania's 2015 Union Day celebrations are on 26 April and all this week there have been up to 6 Chengdu J7's flying practice formation flying low over Dar es Salaam - No Mig 19's though. The J7's are painted a light blue-grey color.

[andre]

more african fighters and topics
http://eastafrican.userboard.net/

[Erik]

Thats some fab pics right there, Ben. Allways loved MiG-19s and theese are about the best pics I've seen of -not only runing, but still serviceing- individuals lately. Thanks a lot for posting..

Regards
Erik/Sweden

[Arnold ten Pas]

Dear Ben,

I just stumbled upon your pcitures of the Tanzanian AF F-6 aircraft. Just amazing! These aircraft were believed to be out of service for years but apparantly classic engineering never dies..:-)

As I am an editor of Scramble Magazine (www.scramble.nl) I have a special interest in these aircraft. Our aircraft is being made by volunteers but has a high standard of aviation news, both military and civil.

I have some questions regarding these aircraft:

- Can you read the serialnumber of the aircraft in the first picture?
- If possible, could we use one or two pictures of the aircraft in our magazine? We will not be able to pay for them as we are a magazine made by volunteers, but we hope that you can send us 1 or 2 pictures as we are very excited about seeing the F-6 and FT-6 (the white trainer) in operation.

Sincerely,

Arnold ten Pas
Scramble Magazine