Headquarter TS-24 (1990), Dresden-Klotzsche
A
short history from inception to disbandment.
Initially formed on May 2st 1963 (in order 14/63 of minister
of defence), as Transport Flight
Squadron 27 from the Transportliegergeschwader 17 based in Dessau, TS 24
officially came into being with the transfer of the Dessau based echelon to
Dresden-Klotzsche on October 25st 1963. The echelon was equipped with (16)
aircraft, comprising of IL-14’s, 4 AN-2& 2 MI-2. This was the basis for
the squadron until the reorganization & re-equipping with the AN-26. In 1965
two of the IL-14’s (416 & 422) were rebuilt as photo-reconnaissance
aircraft at the Aircraft Maintainence & Repair facility (FWD) In Dresden.
1976 saw the takeover of two MI-2’s (328 & 335) in the aerial photographic
role. 1979 started with the extra position of only the IL-14. The first of these
machines showed technical defects (In the driving work legs, rips in the
planking & a machine also lost its emergency exit) all of this despite of
the excellent maintenance efforts performed by the technological staff.
In
June 1980 a group of technological staff, were sent to Kriwoi (Krivoi) Rog in
the Ukraine to begin their retraining on the AN-26,this was in anticipation of
TS 24 being re-equipped with the AN-26. The flying staff for their part, began
their theoretical & aeronautical retraining at the ‘higher flying school’
of the Soviet national airline, Aeroflot in Kirovograd in the
Ukraine on July 19th 1980. This
retraining ended with their return to Dresden on October 31st 1980.
During their training the radio-operator position was eliminated. This
task being taken over by the navigator.
The
december of 1980 saw the first two DDR bound AN-26’s role off of the
production line at Antonovs Kiew (Kiev) based factory. These aircraft were
accepted by TS-24 at Dresden-Klotzsche and given the serial numbers 371 &
372.
On
December 29th 1980 the first mixed flight of AN-26’s and IL-14’s
took place. On this memorable occasion the fligh was controlled from the Dresden
control tower by Lieutenant-Colonel P.Pille, Flightleader (FL) & Chieftain
L.Kobert, Navigator on duty (StvD). The
IL-14 continued to be used by TS-24 until the December of 1982.
The
next major event in the history of TS-24 came on October 3rd 1990.
It was on this date that TS-24 was absorbed into the Federal Armed Forces
of a now united Germany. With this act TS-24 became intergrated into the Air
Transport Command, of the Federal Armed Forces, under the title of LTG-65. Which
was founded as an air transport group comprised of the former transport flights
of the East German Armed Forces (NVA). Under
this new command structure of the airforce the AN-26’s of TS-24 found
themselves in Sardinia, Italy on December 19th 1990. In the November
of 1992 TS-24 was dissolved. The remaining AN-26’s were either sold back to
Russia or have ended up in German Museums. However the flight measuring machine
(369), now known as 52+09 flew on in the service of JBG-32 until the June of 1994.
Il 14 on TS-24 Ramp in Dresden-Klotzsche
More information about TS-24 and the aircraft it used can be found on the AN-26 CD-ROM.
The end
I owe Captain Enrico Otto (Retd.) for kindly providing
photos of the AN-26 at the time of the disarmament.
My
last flight on an IL-14 was on 30-06-1982. this final flight was from Dresden to
Neubrandenburg via Cottbus . In addition a landing was carried out at Preschen
on the return flight (Preschen was later used as the base for the MIG-29). My
first flight on the AN-26 was after the theorectical examination in Kirowograd (Kirovograd)
on October 8th, 1980.
AN2 ,tact. number: 845, in background
