Supermarine Spitfire F 22 was one of the first fighters together with the Fiat G.55 to join SyAAF before the arrival of the first jet Meteor.
Ten ex-Egyptian airframes were acquired in late 1940s, all units were withdrawn from service in 1953.
Not too much info available about Spitfire history in SyAAF service or combat record,one very rare photo above showing wreckage of a Spitfire F 22 from which the artist above inspired its camo.
The Fiat G.55 is another fighter served for SyAAF when Syria bought its first squadron of G.55 and G.59 from Italy in late 1940s.
According to wikipedia, Syria placed an order for 30 similar aircraft, which by this time, were completely from new production as the stocks of G.55 components had been exhausted. Of these, 26 were single-seaters (designated G.59-2A) and the remaining 4 two-seaters (G.59-2B).
Another very rare photo for a SyAAF G.55 reg. 110, most probably in Neyrab AB.
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ReplyDeleteI have seen only today the pics of Fiat G.59 2A in SyAAF colours. The Fiat G.59 was a derivate of the former G.55 and can be considered a new version of G.55 with a Rolls Royce Merlin engine whose installation was a necessity as the original Daimler Benz engines available at the war's end (300 units located in IAF stores all over the country) had been employed to cope with a cospicous order from the Argentina AF. In any case your Syrian G.59 photos are a complete surprise to me - although I was aware of an order from SYAAF. I assume there are no photos showing aircraft's code numbers, am I correct? A little note: the spiralled nose cone seems to have been re-taken from Italian Fiat G.592A and 2B seen and photographed at the Flight School of Lecce in 1950/51. Kind regards
ReplyDeleteDanilo Renzulli