The history of Bulgarian air power
Language: English

     The History of Bulgarian Aviation is a story that begins with Bulgarians' initial efforts to fly at the turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries, when the first successful experiments with heavier-than-air flying machines took place. The apogee was in the Balkan War when the Bulgarians organised and waged the first aerial war in world history. Shortly after, Bulgarian aviation participated ably in the Second Balkan War and the Great War. Wartime collapse did not stop the Bulgarian thrust for the skies. Between the Wars, Bulgaria created indigenous aircraft design and manufacture and rapidly restored its air power. In the Second World War, the Vazdushni Voyski [Bulgarian Air Force] defended the homeland from Anglo-American air raids in 1943 and 1944 before offering air support to advancing Bulgarian land forces in late 1944. While the Paris peace treaty temporarily restricted development, after 1950 Bulgaria began a massive rearmament of its combat aviation. By 1955, the Bulgarian Voennovazdushni Sili were the Balkans' most powerful airforce: an advantage retained through the rest of the Cold War. The system's transformation to date winds up the story.

Table of contents

Introduction

Emergence of Bulgaria’s air arm and the Balkan Wars

The Kingdom of Bulgaria’s air arm in the Great War

The re-emergence of Bulgaria’s air arm in the Interwar Period

The Bulgarian air arm in the Second World War

Total confrontation

The beginnings of change

Bulgarian military aviation in the first five postwar years

The Bulgarian air arm into the jet age

The transformation of Bulgaria’s air arm between 1967 and 1990

The transformation of Bulgaria’s air arm after 1990

Conclusion

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