MOSCOW. Oct 3 (Interfax-AVN) - Russkiye Vityazi and Strizhi aerobatics teams will perform demonstration flights at the Chkalovsky airfield in the Moscow region on Saturday.
"The flights will last for more than an hour - from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m. Moscow time (0630 to 0745 GMT). Pilots of the teams will perform aerobatics stunts in the framework of festivities timed to the 60th anniversary of establishment of the 8th special-purpose aviation division. The festivities will be attended by Air Force Commander Vladimir Mikhailov," chief of the Air Force press service Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky told Interfax-Military News Agency.
Air Force assets will be exhibited on the ground on Saturday afternoon. This will be followed by a live concert.
The 8th division was formed at the Frunze central airfield in Moscow on October 6, 1942. The division's crews flew over 80,000 combat sorties during World War II, airlifting 290,000 servicemen and over 26,000t of cargo. Over 5,000 servicemen of the division got state orders and medals.
"Among the most important governmental missions accomplished by the division during World War II are the delivery of governmental delegations to Tehran in 1943 and from Yalta to San Francisco and Potsdam in 1945," Drobyshevsky said.
He recalled that the division provided aid to the population of Ashgabad when it suffered from an earthquake in 1948. "In 1948- 1950, 49 crews of the division were involved in an Arctic research program. In 1982-1987, pilots of the 8th division provided international aid to Angola, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Cuba and Afghanistan. In 1986, they worked in Chernobyl. In 1995-2002, they operated in Chechnya relocating military command, servicemen, equipment and injured people. Those are just several stages of the division's combat activity," Drobyshevsky stressed.
In September last year, personnel of the 8th division delivered leaders of Russian law-enforcement agencies to a session that the Russian president held in Sochi after terrorist attacks in the United States.
This year, the division's pilots have flown six sorties transporting the Afghan defense and interior ministers, as well as the Russian defense minister, to Afghanistan.
Personnel of the division have got over 1,000 orders and 8,000 medals for successful accomplishment of missions.