Graf Ignatievo Air Base
| Graf Ignatievo Air Base | |||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Military | ||||||||||
| Operator | Military | ||||||||||
| Location | Graf Ignatievo / Plovdiv, Bulgaria | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 190 ft / 58 m | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 42°17′25″N 024°42′50″E / 42.29028°N 24.71389°ECoordinates: 42°17′25″N 024°42′50″E / 42.29028°N 24.71389°E | ||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||
 Graf Ignatievo Air Base
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Source: DAFIF
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Graf Ignatievo Air Base (ICAO: LBPG), is located in the village of Graf Ignatievo, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) north of Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second largest city. It is the sole remaining fighter base of that state and houses two squadrons of jet aircraft.
Graf Ignatievo is often called the German airfield by the Bulgarian aviation society, as the airfield was built with the extensive help of engineers from the Third Reich in the 1930s and was intended to house units of the Luftwaffe. In 1940, the airfield, when it became ready was turned over to the Bulgarian His Majesty's Air Troops. The first operational unit based here was the 2nd Army Aviation Regiment, comprising four yatos (squadrons):
In 1943 the regiment was redesignated a ground attack regiment and in August the first of 12 Junkers Ju 87 R-2 dive bombers were delivered, followed from January to May 1944 by the more advanced Ju 87 D-5 (32 units), to form the regiment's 1st Orlyak. The 2nd Orlyak retained the B.534 fighters (21 units) with a secondary ground attack role. The formation relocated to Vrazhdebna airfield to take part in the war against the Third Reich.
In 1945, the regiment converted to the Soviet Ilyushin Il-2/M3 and, in line with the Soviet air force organisational charts, transformed into a ground attack air division. For a short period, the 26th Independent Reconnaissance Air Regiment, flying the Petlyakov Pe-2, was also based at Graf Ignatievo airfield. In the beginning of 1951,the 15th, 19th and 21st fighter air regiments (FAR) were relocated to the airfield from Karlovo to form the 10th Fighter Air Division. Those were the descendants of the orlyaks of the former 6th Fighter Regiment of the His Majesty's Air Troops - their sole fighter formation, which took part in the defence of the capital of Sofia from Allied bombing in 1943 and 1944. At the time of the relocation to Graf Ignatievo, the regiments flew only a handful of Yakovlev Yak-11 and Polikarpov Po-2 training aircraft in preparation for the transition to jet aircraft - the Yak-23 and Yak-17. The first fighters started flying in April 1951. The batch comprised only 30 Yak-23s and 4 Yak-17Us, as the Bulgarian Air Force started acquiring the MiG-15 in September the same year. For that reason, the Yaks were transferred to the newly forming 1st Fighter Air Division in Tolbukhin (today Dobrich, northwestern Bulgaria). Lieutenant-Colonel Simeon Simeonov (a legendary figure in Bulgarian aviation history and future Commander of the Bulgarian Air Force) assumed command of 10th FAD. His monument is located in the front of 3rd Fighter Air Base - Graf Ignatievo's control tower.
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