Thursday 7 March 2019

Shenyang JJ-2/FT-2

The Shenyang JJ-2 (called Shenyang FT-2 when exported) was a Chinese copy of the Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15UTI.
It was one of the first locally-built jet aircrafts and all of them were built at the State-owned Factory No.112 in the city of Shenyang, located at the coastal province of Liaoning, in Manchuria. Production started in 1953 and continued well until the very late 1950s as an unknown amount of them were manufactured. Just like its original, it was powered by the Chinese copy of the Klimov RD-45F which delivered a thrust of 5005lb (22.26Kn) and was down-armed with just one 12.7mm (0.5in) UBK-E machine gun.
It served with the next air forces:

  • Albania: During the late 1960s, when the Soviet-Albanian relations collapsed, Albania turned to China for military supplies and they were sold many Shenyang JJ-2 which served as the main Albanian trainer from the mid-1960s well until the 1990s when the communism fell. 
  • China: As we said previously, the JJ-2 was the backbone of the People's Liberation Army Air Force's training squadrons and flying schools. It served at least until 1966 when the Chengdu JJ-5 (a trainer version of the MiG-17) started to roll out from the factories.
  • Pakistan: The Pakistani Air Force bought some FT-2s in 1967 to equip their training and school squadrons. They served until the 1970s when they were gradually replaced by the FT-5 and, in many cases, served alongside them (the trainer version of the MiG-17 designated like that for export).
  • Sudan: After their independence and the creation of their air force, the Sudanese government switched mainly to USSR and China for new aircrafts. Therefore the Shenyang FT-2 became their main trainer aircraft from 1968 until it was replaced by the Shenyang FT-5 in the late 1970s which is still in active use nowadays.
  • Tanzania: During the late 1960s the Shenyang FT-2 was the first trainer aircraft that served in the Tanzanian Air Force, together with the more advanced FT-5, which is still in active service, although it's storaged.









Sources:
1. https://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/22676
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_Air_Force
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Liberation_Army_Air_Force
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan_Air_Force
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudanese_Air_Force
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanzania_Air_Force_Command

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