Did you know that Bulgarian pilots carried out one of the first military flights in the world? Their story is part of the pantheon of the Bulgarian military glory and impressed strongly the whole Europe, because until 1912 only Italy had used planes in military operations during the Italo-Turkish War in Northern Africa.

The Balkan War broke out in October 1912, nine years after the suppression of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising which left over 70,000 people homeless and made 30,000 people move to Bulgaria in their attempt to escape from the Ottoman arbitrariness in Macedonia and Thrace. This was a war for the liberation of the Bulgarian people and other Christians who remained under the Ottoman Rule at the Balkan Peninsular. On October 16, 1912, only several days after the outbreak of the First Balkan War two Bulgarian officers made the first military reconnaissance flight over Edirne. Radul Milkov and Prodan Tarakchiev made this flight, in order to collect information about the enemy. Their flight onboard Albatros biplane lasted for 50 minutes. During the next military flights the Bulgarian military aviation dropped hand-made bombs over the Edirne Fortress. When the Balkan War began Bulgaria was among the leading countries in Europe and the world in the military aviation field. At that time Bulgaria had 12 planes made from German, English, French and Russian companies, whereas the USA had 3 planes only. Radul Milkov and Prodan Tarakchiev were not chosen to carry out the first military flight accidentally, because they went under a series of trainings in military schools in Germany, France and Russia.

The glory of the Bulgarian military aviation started on October 16, 1912. Since then the Bulgarian Air Forces have been celebrating their holiday on this emblematic day.

In his speech during the meeting with veterans from the Bulgarian military aviation the Commander of the Bulgarian Air Force Major-General Tsanko Stoychev reminded the role and the importance of the Bulgarian Air Force during the protection of the country’s national security. Tsanko Stoychev added that this topic has been often used in the service of different interests:

The objective picture of the Bulgarian Air Force should be based on the understanding about its opportunities for protection of the national security and the correlations between national security-security environment-military air force. Nowadays, the international security is filled with complex relations, controversies and conflicts. The world has been going through dramatic political, demographic, environmental and technological changes. The globalization process has sped up which resulted in increased social inequalities, discontent and loss of confidence in the ruling political parties. Longtime friendly and allied relations gave way to open confrontation. It is naive to rule out possible threats to the independence and territorial integrity of Bulgaria, because of its EU and NATO membership and the fact that none of Bulgaria’s neighboring countries treat us openly as potential enemy. The changes in the security environment require amendments to the strategic assessment of the current threats. The Bulgarian Air Forces must form a potential for defensive capabilities that is adequate to the contemporary risks and threats. We have to think about the development of the industrial potential along with the development of the military potential.

According to General Stoykov, the opinion that it is too expensive for Bulgaria to support its own military aviation and would be cheaper to pay other countries to police its air space instead is mediocre. Bulgaria is a NATO member and has the obligation to build, maintain and develop its defense capabilities in cooperation with the other members of the North-Atlantic Alliance, in order to counter any possible armed attack from third countries.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov