Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17F, part six, various European users

The MiG-17F was the main fighter of many Warsaw Pact Users, among them, the following ones:

• Bulgaria: During the mid-to-late 1950s, the People's Republic of Bulgaria was supplied with batches of the newest Soviet jet fighters. The MiG-17F was active in the Bulgarian People's Army Air Force through the 1960s until the 1970s when it was withdrawn following a modernization period of the Bulgarian Air Force.
• Czechoslovakia: Some few MiG-17F served with the Czechoslovak Air Force before being locally produced as the Aero S-104. One of them was the personal aircraft of Gen. Jozef Kúkel who was the commander in chief of the 10th Air Army. Further details are unknown.
• East Germany: In 1956 the Soviet Union provided the newly established East German Air Force with many jet fighters and bombers, among them the MiG-17F. It served as their main interceptor/fighter until 1962 when the MiG-21 was introduced. After that, some of them were modified with added pylons to attach either bombs or rocket launchers. These modified machines were commonly known as the East German fighter-bomber and, while some of them were kept in active until the late 1980s, most of them were sold to African countries like Mozambique.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-17

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_Air_Force

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovak_Air_Force

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Forces_of_the_National_People%27s_Army

5. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Aero L-29, part three, Czech and East German users

The Aero L-29 was a jet-powered aircraft which featured a straightforward and simple design and construction. It used a mid wing with a T-tail arrangement. Wings were unswept and air intakes were placed at the wing roots. Undercarriage was reinforced and able of withstand considerable amount of stress. It was relatively unpowered but even yet, it showed many favourable characteristics in its flight performance, like handling ease. The primary flying controls were manually operated and both flaps and airbrakes were actuated using hydraulic systems.
Most of the aircraft were powered by the Czech-designed Motorlet M-701 engine which delivered 1960lb of thrust (8,7kN). Between 1961 and 1968 approximately 9250 engines were completed and no less than 5000 of them were destinated to the L-29. The student and the instructor were placed in a tandem layout underneath separate canopies with the instructor's position placed in a slightly position to better oversee the student. Both posts were provided with ejection seats which were interlinked to fire in a synchronised manner to avoid any possibility of mid-air collision between the two ejector seats.
During the mid 1990s many were sold to private owners to use them in the private civil sector with many technical changes like the removal of military related equipment such as gunsights, the replacement of avionics with western-made ones and so on.
As we said previously, the Aero L-29 was the main trainer of the Czechoslovak Air Force since the 1960s and it was kept in active use, together with the Aero L-39, until the mid-1990s when it was withdrawn from service and many of them were sold to private owners to use them in aerial shows. The type also served with the East-German Luftwaffe from the mid-1960s until the late 1980s when it was withdrawn from service.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_L-29_Delfín
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Forces_of_the_National_People%27s_Army
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovak_Air_Force

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15UTI, part two, East German and Hungarian users

The Mikoyan MiG-15UTI was a Soviet trainer variant of the regular MiG-15. It had a modified cockpit to fit both instructor and student.
It was mass-manufactured and was the backbone of many air forces around the world, specially those in the Soviet sphere of influence and Warsaw Pact countries.
In this post we're going to cover just two countries: East Germany and Hungary.

• East Germany: In 1956 when the Luftstreitkräfte der Nationalen Volksarmee (Air Component of the National People's Army - East German Air Force) was created, they received a batch of MiG-15UTIs which was assigned to the Jagbombergeschwader JBG-31 among other fighter units. They served as their main jet trainer, together with other types like the Czechoslovak Aero L-29, from 1956 until the dissolution of the NVA (Nationale Volksarmee - National People's Army) in 1990. It was inherited by the West German Luftwaffe in that same year and, as it was already an obsolete type, most of them were scrapped or sold. One exemplar was repainted and sent to the Luftwaffe's Museum in Berlin where it's shown nowadays.
• Hungary: The Air Force of the Hungarian People's Army was completely modified in the 1950s to make it transition into the jet age as they were equipped with outdated propeller-fighters and bombers. As, in order to make the pilots meet the new jet fighters, they needed a trainer, the MiG-15UTI was supplied by the USSR. It served as the main trainer type until the fall of Eastern-bloc in the early 1990s, together with the Aero L-29 and, later the Aero L-39.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-15

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Forces_of_the_National_People%27s_Army

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Air_Force#Post–World_War_II_to_Present