X-Nico

25 unusual facts about Israeli Air Force


1950 in Israel

17 May - A Royal Air Force Short Sunderland is confronted by Israeli Air Force Spitfires and is forced to land at Lod Airport after it inadvertently crosses into Israeli airspace and overflies Ramat David Airbase.

1975 in Israel

25 November – Israeli Air Force C-130H 203/4X-FBO, c/n 4533, crashes into mount Jebel Halal, 55 kilometers south-southeast of El Arish, in the Israeli-administered Sinai Peninsula.

Ad Halom

Cohen, a Machal pilot from South Africa, was shot down by anti-aircraft fire, becoming the first casualty of the fledgling IAF.

Amiram Barkai

At the age of 18 Amiram was conscripted into the Israeli Air Force and was accepted to the pilots training program.

Bedolah

The residents of Bedolah were forcibly evicted from their homes on August 17, 2005 by the 'blue' brigade manned mostly by the Israeli Air Force personnel.

Boeing 377

:In the early 1960s the Israeli Air Force wanted to upgrade to the C-130 Hercules which could lift larger payloads, but it was expensive and sales were embargoed by the United States.

Dov Gazit

After Israel declared independence, Dov served as chief-commander of the IAF (Israeli Air Force) Technical School in Haifa.

Eliyahu Winograd

Chaired the Inquiry Commission to investigate the Air Force cable accident and rescue — the commission submitted its findings

Givat HaEm

After two days of heavy bombardment by the Israeli Air Force, the breakthrough came at 10:00 on the morning of 9 June 1967.

Guy Bavli

During this time, he developed a mind reading act and became a member of the Israeli Air Force Performing Group as an actor and singer.

Hammam Chott

On 1 October 1985, Hammam Chott was bombarded by the Israeli Air Force in Operation Wooden Leg.

Hatzor

In 1946 the kibbutz finally settled in its present location, at the time a barren hill with an abandoned quarry on one side, surrounded by four Arab villages and a Royal Air Force base (now Israeli Air Force Hatzor Airbase).

IAF Technological College, Be'er Sheva

Shoher is a special form of "pre-Conscription" soldier (מלש"ב) - shoher have priority in choosing their type of service in technical parts of the Israeli Air Force.

If Israel Lost the War

The book's point of divergence is the assumption that it is the Arab air forces which on June 5, 1967 launch a surprise attack and destroy the Israeli Air Force, rather than the other way around as it happened in actual history.

Islamic University of Gaza

Just after midnight December 28/29 local time, the Islamic University of Gaza was bombed in six separate air strikes as part of the December 2008 Gaza Strip airstrikes by the Israeli Air Force.

Israeli legislative election, 1973

The government resigned on 22 December 1976, after ministers of the National Religious Party were sacked because the party had abstained from voting on a motion of no confidence, which had been brought by Agudat Yisrael over a breach of the Sabbath on an Israeli Air Force base.

Joe Shapira

He graduated in 1972 from Ort Yad Singalovsky, and enlisted in the Israeli Air Force, and received an honourable discharge after three years of service, during the Yom Kippur war in 1973.

Majdi Halabi

Halabi began his mandatory military service in the IDF in the Israeli Air Force at a Be'er sheva campus of the Israeli Air And Space technical college but had difficulties serving at the place and as a result he lowered his Medical Profile and was transferred to serve in a vehicle workshop of the Ordnance Corps, at a maintenance and rehabilitation (מרכז שיקום ואחזקה) base located near Haifa.

Naamah Kelman

Her husband, Dr. Elan Ezrachi, is a former Israeli Air Force pilot, who specializes in Israeli relations with Jewish communities in the Diaspora.

Naor's Friends

Dedi is a pilot in the Israeli Air Force who became a pilot for the purpose of impressing women.

Orna Berry

Prior to beginning her education, Berry was drafted into the Israeli Air Force, where she served as an officer for the flying school, from 1967 to 1970.

Sheikh Radwan

Hamas secretary-general Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi was assassinated in Sheikh Radwan on 17 April 2004 after an Israeli Apache gunship fired on his vehicle.

Sitalchay Military Airbase

In March 2012, the magazine Foreign Policy reported that the Israeli Air Force might be preparing to use the airbase, located 500 km from the Iranian border, for air strikes against the nuclear program of Iran.

Vladimír Clementis

In 1948, in his new role, he played a decisive role in organising Czechoslovakian's part of the Operation Balak by providing a help to the newly founded Israeli Air Force.

Zahn's Airport

Lyons (a New Yorker born Edwin Leibowitz) had flown for the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War and in 1939 had helped to establish the Palestine Flying Service in Mandatory Palestine; the PFS became a precursor of the Israeli Air Force.


David Passig

He has consulted the Ministry of Education, Bank Hapoalim, and the Israeli Air Force.

El Gorah

El Gorah is the location of former Israeli Air Force Base Eitam (named after the biblical station Etham), built during the Israeli occupation of the northern Sinai from 1967 to 1979.

Karem Aircraft

Karem was the former chief designer for the Israeli Air Force — who built his first drone during 1973's Yom Kippur War — and has been described by The Economist as the man who "created the robotic plane that transformed the way modern warfare is waged — and continues to pioneer other airborne innovations".

Operation Horev

On the same day the Israeli Air Force shot down five RAF Spitfires on patrol in the area, killing two pilots and taking two more prisoner.

Shaar HaNegev school bus attack

The Israeli Air Force and Israeli Navy launched missile attacks on targets in Gaza, while the Israeli Army attacked Palestinian targets with artillery and tank fire.