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As time goes by, generation after generation of young pilots pass through the cockpits of the small jet planes, on their way towards the powerful supersonic jets they will fly in active duty. Years and years come and go, hundreds of men and women fly for the first time onboard a jet plane, only to get their license and move on. But time has put its fingerprint on these birds, and now, after four decades of service, the oldest jet trainers in the inventory of the Romanian Air Force are finally put to a well-deserved resting point.
The PR office of the Romanian Air Force (RoAF) has announced that starting with 1st of December, 2005, the entire L-29 Delfin fleet will be retired. Instructors and pilots alike, young and old, as well as mechanics and aviation fans around the continent, will miss this small but welcoming aircraft.
On the 6th of April 1964, a proposal was made for the purchase of L-29 Delfin jet trainer aircraft from Czechoslovakia. A numer of 52 aircraft have been delivered by 1973, the first Romanian pilot to fly one was general-major Aurel Niculescu. Nicknamed "Gentle Ben" by the pilots, the L-29 represented the mid-point between desire and the actual flying of a RoAF aircraft for hundreds of Romanian military pilots across the decades. Before retirement, the L-29 was flown by the first female future jet fighter pilot in Romania, 2nd lt. Alexandra Ciubotaru, as well as by 2nd lt. Adrian Gradinaru, after his graduation of the US Air Force's fighter pilot training program.
Several L-29 Delfins have been sold abroad by the RoAF, but their numbers pale in comparison with the ones sold by neighboring countries such as Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. In all, RoAF remains in hold of dozens of such aircraft, which will probably, and unfortunately, see their end in a scrapped iron scenario sometime in the near future.
RoAF still uses, for the moment, L-39 Albatros and IAR-99 Soim jet trainer aircraft. In the near future, the L-39 fleet will be phased out as well, leaving the IAR-99 Soim as the Air Force's single aircraft for first and advanced jet training activities, as well as light attack tasks.
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