Famous fighter aircraft: final retirement, by country and by date.

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Archibald

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I thought it might be fun to check the retirement dates of famous jet fighters, say post WWII. Could be extended to attack jets and propeller fighters too. Also foreign types.

Last F-80C: Uruguay, 1970 https://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_fighters/p80_12.html
Last F-84G: Portugal, 1975 https://www.key.aero/article/republic-f-84g-thunderjet-angola
Last RF-84F: Greece, 1991 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/348th_Tactical_Reconnaissance_Squadron
Last F-86: Bolivia, 1994 https://www.key.aero/article/f-86s-t-33s-and-more-touring-bolivian-air-force-bases-1990s

Last F-100: Turkey, 1988 also Taiwan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_F-100_Super_Sabre (ANG retired theirs in 1979, Denmark in 1982)
Last F-104: Taiwan (1998) Italy (2004)

More later...
 
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https://wwiiafterwwii.wordpress.com/Last clash between propeller fighters: July 1969, Football war. Mustang vs Corsair
Last B-24: India, 1969
Last B-17: IGN, France, 1984 (= US Geological Survey)
Last Skyraider: Gabon, 1983 (ex- French Algerian war aircraft) ------ http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/article_gabon_skyraiders.html
Last P-47: Peru, 1966

https://hushkit.net/2020/01/29/last-flights-and-fights-of-the-legends/
Last Mustang: Dominican Republic, 1984 (WDF ?) https://laststandonzombieisland.com/tag/dominican-republic-p-51/
Last Corsair: Honduras, 1979 (WTF ?) https://www.jets-are-for-kids.ch/pdf/Honduran F4U.pdf
 
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Last Crusaders:
-December 1999 (French Navy)
-Philippine F-8Hs stopped flying the next year, 1988. Mount Pinatubo big tantrum in June 1991 definitively grounded them.
-VFP-206 finally relinquished its RF-8Gs on March 29, 1987, becoming the last Navy unit to fly the Crusader.
Click to expand...

Last F-101: Canada, 1987 https://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_fighters/f101_4.html
Last F-102s: 1979 (Greece & Turkey) 1976 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_F-102_Delta_Dagger
Last F-105: 1984 https://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_fighters/f105_5.html
Last F-106: 1988 https://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_fighters/f106_1.html
 
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Now that's interesting... by 1969 south american air forces still had
-Meteor (Ecuador: FR.9)
-Vampire (Chile : trainers)
-F-80C (Uruguay)
-Ouragan (El Salvador, ex- IDF/AF)
-F-86 (Bolivia)
 
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Just for the record: good old Mirage III is still in service with two countries: Egypt and Pakistan.
-The latter swept every single airframe they could get their hands on, in the ROSE program.
-I have no idea why Egypt keeps its Mirage 5 in service, considering the boatload of more modern types in their inventory. It is just beyond me.

And of course Austria pulled a F-104S with their Drakens, dumping them only in 2005. Frack, they almost outlived the Viggens (!) retired by Sweden in 2006 !
Last Swedish Drakens were retired in 1997 by F10 squadron.

Skyhawks, Tigers and Phantoms are seemingly eternals.
 
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Good work searching these out.
Some of them are surprising but it just goes to show how long-lived some these aircraft were and how some nations kept some of these types for a long time.
 
Hood said:
Good work searching these out.
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The Internet has been my playground since 2002... :D

Weirdest discovery relates to the F-84s. Portugal kept their -G flying so long only because of the Angola crisis. And if the carnation revolution had no swept the old Salazar world in 1974 there might still fight there.

And the Greek RF-84F - 1991, WDF. Seems reconnaissance (and 348 squadron) were HAF last priority. They had not enough RF-4s, that's the reason. The said Recce Phantoms soldiered on, same squadron, until 2017.

But the Dominican Mustangs fighting the cubans in 1983 beat them all, by a long shot. And they faced MiG-21s ! When you think about it, the Mustang outlived the F-80 and even the F-84G !! And almost the F-84F, but Greece saved it. Crap, it outlived the F-100, since Turkey retired theirs in 1982. Also the F-102 - this is getting more and more ridiculous...!

I checked MiG-17 operators and North Korea is the last user standing. MiG-19s (and J-6s) in comparison are still out there in numbers (Bangladesh, from memory). Much less fun browsing Soviet types, as the 1990's essentially wiped all of them up to MiG-23 - minus MiG-21s. Vae victis, as they say...
 
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Archibald said:
...
And of course Austria pulled a F-104S with their Drakens, dumping them only in 2005. Frack, they almost outlived the Viggens (!) retired by Sweden in 2006 !
Last Swedish Drakens were retired in 1997 by F10 squadron.
...
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The last Finnish Draken flight was at Rovaniemi on 16 August 2000.
 
Talking about it: this blew my mind. https://mil.in.ua/en/news/yak-52-shot-down-a-russian-reconnaissance-drone-in-the-sky-over-odesa/

You know what ? it must be the first "propeller-piston aircraft" air-to-air victory since the 1969 "Football war" mentionned up thread. Also it looks so much like the first air to air victory, ever: Frantz & Quenault, october 1914. Slow plane, two guys, and an improvised weapon ! :D

The "shahed air war" is rewritting air combat statistics, week after week. The other day it was France first victory since April 1945... by an helicopter with a 7.7 mm gunner.
 
On the Soviet (and Chinese) front... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenyang_J-6#Current_operators

Two interesting facts a) the Chinese build twice more J-6s than the Soviets build MiG-19s (4500 something versus 2200 and counting). b) because the chinese production run was so long, obviously J-6s are still in service when MiG-19s are all gone... except perhaps North Korea. Which also still has MiG-17s, last in the world.
Also the Q-5 with the solid nose. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanchang_Q-5

I remember when I was playing Novalogic's F-22 Raptor video game, Q-5s were called A-5C. Early on I thought they were Vigilantes.
 
Corrected the F-100 entry. Not only Turkey but also Taiwan retired their F-100s the same year... 1988. Hence Greece RF-84Fs and Bolivia F-86s outlived the Huns.
 
By the way Portugal used PV-2 Harpoon until... 1975. Including Angola, along the F-84G. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Ventura

I realized I haven't checked the last P-38s, P-39s and P-40s.

Last P-38s were seemingly tied up in a race to 1957 by Italy, the Dominican Republic, and... the CIA.

Last P-40s: Brazil, 1954

Last P-39 / P-63: Soviet Union, 1953.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/256th_Fighter_Aviation_Regimenthttps://militarymatters.online/military-history/when-the-usaf-attacked-a-soviet-airbase/
 
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Some more Finnish military jet last flights,
in addition to the Draken (16 Aug 2000)

de Havilland Vampire: 15 July 1965 (D.H.115 Vampire Mk.55)
Folland Gnat F.1: 12 October 1972
MiG-15UTI (trainer): 07 February 1977
Fouga CM.170 Magister: 19 December 1988
Mig 21F-13: 17 January 1986
MiG-21BIS: 07 March 1998
 
France 1940 aircraft (vae victis !)

-Last D-520 (trainers), Potez 63 (CEV flight test center) were retired circa 1953.

-the MB-175 turned torpedo bomber for the Aéronavale in 1945 (80 built) was not retired until 1960 !

-LeO-451s lasted much longer: used as transport aircraft as far as the Algerian war (at least 1957 !)
http://avions-de-la-guerre-d-algeri...le-sncase-leo-453-l-et-s-en-afn-96973320.html
-"True" MS-406s were not retired until 1948 by Finland (!!)
-Last MS-406 (derivates) lasted into the 1950's in Switzerland
------a) D-3800s : 1954
------b) D-3801: 1959

-One Amiot 351 had been preserved well into the 1970's by Felix Amiot. After his death he went to the Musée de l'air reserves at Dugny... which burned in May 1990 (sigh, facepalm).
 
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Yes ! And the careers of their Tu-4s was pretty wild. They lased into the 1970's, some were given turboprops, and one of them became an AWACS testbed. :eek:

The clandestine air war between Taiwand and China air forces circa 1960, was wild too. Basically the CIA passed a whole bunch of WWII aircraft to ROCAF for infiltrations of spies into the PRC. And they flew at night. The reason ? go try chasing a terrain hugging, slow propeller plane at night with a MiG-17 that vastly prefers speed, day light and clear weather. Same story for the P-2 and P-3 : ASW planes needs to loiter low and slow to chase submarines.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Bat_Squadron (I often confuse it with the black CAT squadron, who got U-2s)

At some point the PLAAF was so pissed by the slow planes, they tried turning a Tu-4 into a slow, loitering interceptor. Didn't worked too well, one of the planes slammed into the ground. I think they tried using Tu-2s instead.

the 34th Squadron of the ROC Air Force. The unit's aircraft included the Boeing B-17G, Douglas A-26C/B-26C Invader, 7 Lockheed RB-69A, Douglas C-54, 11 Fairchild C-123B/K Provider, Lockheed C-130E Hercules, and 3 "black" Lockheed P-3A Orion (149669, 149673, 149678).
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The P-3As and RB-69As were armed with AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles for self-defense. 34th Squadron specialized in very low level air space penetration (100–200 meters altitude) to hug the ground in order to evade enemy radars and fighter interceptions.
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B-17 = C-54 = P-2 : fly low and slow, hug the ground, drive MiG-15 pilots crazy.
 
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Archibald said:
Yes ! And the careers of their Tu-4s was pretty wild. They lased into the 1970's, some were given turboprops, and one of them became an AWACS testbed. :eek:

The clandestine air war between Taiwand and China air forces circa 1960, was wild too. Basically the CIA passed a whole bunch of WWII aircraft to ROCAF for infiltrations of spies into the PRC. And they flew at night. The reason ? go try chasing a terrain hugging, slow propeller plane at night with a MiG-17 that vastly prefers speed, day light and clear weather. Same story for the P-2 and P-3 : ASW planes needs to loiter low and slow to chase submarines.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Bat_Squadron (I often confuse it with the black CAT squadron, who got U-2s)

At some point the PLAAF was so pissed by the slow planes, they tried turning a Tu-4 into a slow, loitering interceptor. Didn't worked too well, one of the planes slammed into the ground. I think they tried using Tu-2s instead.





B-17 = C-54 = P-2 : fly low and slow, hug the ground, drive MiG-15 pilots crazy.
Click to expand...
a086b77df1bcdcf1dcc21acc03b3a0c2.jpeg
The AWACS testbed variant of the Tu-4 was called KJ-1 (K stands for air, and J stands for alert), but in 1979, the project was cancelled and the aircraft was converted back into an electronic reconnaissance and countermeasure aircraft. The radar of the KJ-1 on display today was later reinstalled (as shown in this picture I took), and the PLAAF's Tu-4 was not replaced by the H-6 until 1988.
 
Archibald said:
Yes ! And the careers of their Tu-4s was pretty wild. They lased into the 1970's, some were given turboprops, and one of them became an AWACS testbed. :eek:

The clandestine air war between Taiwand and China air forces circa 1960, was wild too. Basically the CIA passed a whole bunch of WWII aircraft to ROCAF for infiltrations of spies into the PRC. And they flew at night. The reason ? go try chasing a terrain hugging, slow propeller plane at night with a MiG-17 that vastly prefers speed, day light and clear weather. Same story for the P-2 and P-3 : ASW planes needs to loiter low and slow to chase submarines.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Bat_Squadron (I often confuse it with the black CAT squadron, who got U-2s)

At some point the PLAAF was so pissed by the slow planes, they tried turning a Tu-4 into a slow, loitering interceptor. Didn't worked too well, one of the planes slammed into the ground. I think they tried using Tu-2s instead.





B-17 = C-54 = P-2 : fly low and slow, hug the ground, drive MiG-15 pilots crazy.
Click to expand...
Could you please provide me with the relevant information and sources regarding the Tu-4 crash incident you mentioned? I haven't been able to find it.
 
Archibald said:
I thought it might be fun to check the retirement dates of famous jet fighters, say post WWII. Could be extended to attack jets and propeller fighters too. Also foreign types.

Last F-80C: Uruguay, 1970 https://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_fighters/p80_12.html
Last F-84G: Portugal, 1975 https://www.key.aero/article/republic-f-84g-thunderjet-angola
Last RF-84F: Greece, 1991 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/348th_Tactical_Reconnaissance_Squadron
Last F-86: Bolivia, 1994 https://www.key.aero/article/f-86s-t-33s-and-more-touring-bolivian-air-force-bases-1990s

Last F-100: Turkey, 1988 also Taiwan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_F-100_Super_Sabre (ANG retired theirs in 1979, Denmark in 1982)
Last F-104: Taiwan (1998) Italy (2004)

More later...
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Archibald -

Howdy !

The last F-80s ? Ok….how ‘ bout the last T-33s ?

Regards,
357Mag
 
Like the B-52, the Il 28 just DOES the job intended and they still have a little voracity depending on the threats envisaged.

Admittedly the BUFF has more room for mods.
 

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