144-531: The Bulgarian Air Force ( Bulgarian : Военновъздушни сили , romanized : Voennovazdushni sili ) is one of the three branches of the Military of Bulgaria , the other two being the Bulgarian Navy and Bulgarian land forces . Its mission is to guard and protect the sovereignty of Bulgarian airspace, and jointly with the other branches, to protect territorial integrity. The Bulgarian Air Force
288-477: A Bleriot XXI , which Simeon Petrov flew on 13 August 1912 to become the first Bulgarian to pilot an airplane over Bulgaria. Following the outbreak of the First Balkan War , Bulgarian pilots, while still abroad, hastily procured aircraft to be shipped home after them and foreign volunteer pilots converged from all over Europe to fly for Bulgaria. After the front lines had stabilized, an Aeroplane Platoon
432-469: A seaplane station under German control was established near Varna , initially operating four Friedrichshafen FF.33 bombers and a Rumpler 6B1 fighter. Later, at the coast of the Varna Lake, a second seaplane station was built (this one under Bulgarian control), operating the same inventory. Near Sozopol a forward fuel and ammunition replenishment base was established in support of patrol flights over
576-574: A standard Bulgarian language; however, there was much argument surrounding the choice of norms. Between 1835 and 1878 more than 25 proposals were put forward and "linguistic chaos" ensued. Eventually the eastern dialects prevailed, and in 1899 the Bulgarian Ministry of Education officially codified a standard Bulgarian language based on the Drinov-Ivanchev orthography. Bulgarian is the official language of Bulgaria , where it
720-856: A Russian aircraft engineer, Boris Maslennikov, was invited to Bulgaria , where he presented his airplane, a modification of the French Farman III . Following his demonstration, assisted by Vasil Zlatarov over the hippodrome in Sofia , the Bulgarian Government decided to acquire airplanes for The Aviation Corps. In early 1912 thirteen army officers were sent abroad for training as pilots and orders were placed for five French, British and German airplanes. The officers sent to France completed their training first and returned to Bulgaria in July 1912. The same year Bulgaria received its first airplane –
864-686: A celebrity, instantly resulting in many orders for copies of his aircraft. The aircraft, which never flew again, was hurriedly repaired and put on display at Selfridges department store in London. It was later displayed outside the offices of the French newspaper Le Matin and eventually bought by the Musee des Arts et Metiers in Paris. After the successful crossing of the English Channel , there
1008-532: A consonant and are feminine, as well as nouns that end in –а/–я (most of which are feminine, too) use –та. Nouns that end in –е/–о use –то. The plural definite article is –те for all nouns except for those whose plural form ends in –а/–я; these get –та instead. When postfixed to adjectives the definite articles are –ят/–я for masculine gender (again, with the longer form being reserved for grammatical subjects), –та for feminine gender, –то for neuter gender, and –те for plural. Both groups agree in gender and number with
1152-471: A decisive role in the standardization of the Bulgarian language, rejected the proposal of Parteniy Zografski and Kuzman Shapkarev for a mixed eastern and western Bulgarian/Macedonian foundation of the standard Bulgarian language, stating in his article in the newspaper Makedoniya : "Such an artificial assembly of written language is something impossible, unattainable and never heard of." After 1944
1296-414: A famous motorcycle racer whose successes were due to the engines that he made, and who had recently entered the field of aero-engine manufacture. On 27 May 1909, a 19 kW (25 hp) Anzani 3-cylinder fan-configuration (semi-radial) engine was fitted. The propeller was also replaced with a Chauvière Intégrale two-bladed scimitar propeller made from laminated walnut wood . This propeller design
1440-451: A few dialects along the yat border, e.g. in the Pleven region). More examples of the yat umlaut in the literary language are: Until 1945, Bulgarian orthography did not reveal this alternation and used the original Old Slavic Cyrillic letter yat (Ѣ), which was commonly called двойно е ( dvoyno e ) at the time, to express the historical yat vowel or at least root vowels displaying
1584-708: A flight lasting 36 minutes 55 seconds, and on 13 July, Blériot won the Aero Club de France 's first Prix du Voyage with a 42 km (26 mi) flight between Etampes and Orléans . The Blériot XI gained lasting fame on 25 July 1909, when Blériot crossed the English Channel from Calais to Dover , winning a £1,000 (equivalent to £115,000 in 2018) prize awarded by the Daily Mail . For several days, high winds had grounded Blériot and his rivals: Hubert Latham , who flew an Antoinette monoplane, and Count de Lambert , who brought two Wright biplanes . On 25 July, when
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#17327721422331728-622: A flight of three armed Albatros C.III two-seat trainers covered the center of the city as backup. The bomber successfully dropped its bombs over Sofia while escaping anti-aircraft fire but, while departing, was attacked by the Bulgarian Fokkers, one piloted by Marko Parvanov, which brought the Farman down with a dead engine. Another Allied aircraft, a British Armstrong Whitworth F.K.3 , was captured by Bulgarian troops on 12 February 1917 after engine problems forced it to land. Both it and
1872-466: A heavier-than-air aircraft, on 25 July 1909. This is one of the most famous accomplishments of the pioneer era of aviation, and not only won Blériot a lasting place in history but also assured the future of his aircraft manufacturing business. The event caused a major reappraisal of the importance of aviation; the English newspaper The Daily Express led its story of the flight with the headline "Britain
2016-502: A middle ground between the macrodialects. It allows palatalizaton only before central and back vowels and only partial reduction of / a / and / ɔ / . Reduction of / ɛ / , consonant palatalisation before front vowels and depalatalization of palatalized consonants before central and back vowels is strongly discouraged and labelled as provincial. Bulgarian has six vowel phonemes, but at least eight distinct phones can be distinguished when reduced allophones are taken into consideration. There
2160-446: A much smaller group of irregular nouns with zero ending which define tangible objects or concepts ( кръв /krɤf/ 'blood', кост /kɔst/ 'bone', вечер /ˈvɛtʃɛr/ 'evening', нощ /nɔʃt/ 'night'). There are also some commonly used words that end in a vowel and yet are masculine: баща 'father', дядо 'grandfather', чичо / вуйчо 'uncle', and others. The plural forms of the nouns do not express their gender as clearly as
2304-523: A number of photographic cameras and other aviation equipment were destroyed at the military airfield of Bozhurishte. The seaplanes of the Bulgarian Navy were delivered by train to the same airfield and scrapped soon after that. Due to the devotion of the Air Troops personnel and the help of the population of the surrounding villages, several aircraft were hidden, thus evading Allied inspection following destruction. Seven DFW C.V, Albatros C.III and
2448-490: A number of phraseological units and sayings. The major exception are vocative forms, which are still in use for masculine (with the endings -е, -о and -ю) and feminine nouns (-[ь/й]о and -е) in the singular. In modern Bulgarian, definiteness is expressed by a definite article which is postfixed to the noun, much like in the Scandinavian languages or Romanian (indefinite: човек , 'person'; definite: човек ът , "
2592-410: A pair of inverted V struts with their apices connected by a longitudinal tube, and an inverted four-sided pyramidal ventral cabane, also of steel tubing, below. When first built it had a wingspan of 7 m (23 ft) and a small teardrop-shaped fin mounted on the cabane, which was later removed. Like its predecessor, it had the engine mounted directly in front of the leading edge of the wing and
2736-494: A report for the French government which came to the conclusion that the problem was not the strength of the wing spars but a failure to take into account the amount of downward force to which aircraft wings could be subjected, and that the problem could be solved by increasing the strength of the upper bracing wires. This analysis was accepted, and Blériot's prompt and thorough response to the problem enhanced rather than damaged his reputation. The Type XI remained in production until
2880-835: A series of remarkable missions, such as an attempted resupply of the garrison in the colony German East Africa and the bombing of Naples and Port Said . During a mission against the British naval base in Malta , a lightning strike over the Mediterranean Sea set it alight and completely destroyed it. All hands were lost. On 4 October 1918 the Bulgarian Tsar issued a Royal Act of Demobilization. This resulted in military aviation being converted to its peacetime structure. The Aeroplane group, based in Bozhurishte comprised
3024-530: A single Fokker D.VII were among the survivors. In addition, at least ten aviation engines ( Benz Bz.IV and Mercedes D.III ) were also saved. The Bulgarian government tried to get around the ban for military flight activity by establishing a Gendarmery Aeroplane Section in 1919. Since the Gendarmery was at that time a service under the Ministry of War, the creation of the unit was met by fierce opposition by
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#17327721422333168-456: A small balanced all-moving rudder mounted on the rearmost vertical member of the fuselage and a horizontal tailplane mounted under the lower longerons . This had elevator surfaces making up the outermost part of the fixed horizontal surface; these "tip elevators" were linked by a torque tube running through the inner section. The bracing and warping wires were attached to a dorsal, five-component "house-roof" shaped cabane consisting of
3312-531: A special count form in –а/–я , which stems from the Proto-Slavonic dual : два/три стола ('two/three chairs') versus тези столове ('these chairs'); cf. feminine две/три/тези книги ('two/three/these books') and neuter две/три/тези легла ('two/three/these beds'). However, a recently developed language norm requires that count forms should only be used with masculine nouns that do not denote persons. Thus, двама/трима ученици ('two/three students')
3456-572: A student. On 20 April 1906 "Vazduhoplavatelno Otdelenie" (roughly translated as Aviation Squad) was created to operate observation balloons for the Army, initially as a part of Railway Battalion. After graduation Lt. Zlatarov was appointed its first commander. After operating small balloons, in 1911 a bigger Godard balloon was bought, and in 1912 the first indigenous balloon, Sofia-1, was constructed in Bulgaria using materials bought from Russia . In 1910,
3600-483: A training orlyak (in Plovdiv ), a maritime yato (at NAS Chaika, Varna) and additional operational support units. Colonel Ivan Mikhailov was appointed the first chief of the air force with Lieutenant-Colonel Georgi Vasilev appointed as his Deputy. In late 1930s Bulgaria started acquiring Polish and German aircraft. In 1936 Bulgaria ordered 14 PZL P.24 B fighters and 12 PZL.43 light bombers from Poland, which due to
3744-541: A war) and in Mexico. The British Royal Flying Corps received its first Blériots in 1912. During the early stages of World War I eight French, six British and six Italian squadrons operated various military versions of the aircraft, mainly for observation duties but also as trainers, and in the case of single-seaters as light bombers with a bomb load of up to 25 kg. In addition to the aircraft used by Louis Blériot to make his cross-channel flight in 1909, on display in
3888-548: Is "Eltsin" ( Борис Елцин ), Yekaterinburg is "Ekaterinburg" ( Екатеринбург ) and Sarajevo is "Saraevo" ( Сараево ), although – because of the stress and the beginning of the word – Jelena Janković is " Ye lena Yankovich" ( Йелена Янкович ). Until the period immediately following the Second World War , all Bulgarian and the majority of foreign linguists referred to the South Slavic dialect continuum spanning
4032-579: Is also spoken by the Bulgarian historical communities in North Macedonia , Ukraine , Moldova , Serbia , Romania , Hungary , Albania and Greece . One can divide the development of the Bulgarian language into several periods. Bulgarian was the first Slavic language attested in writing. As Slavic linguistic unity lasted into late antiquity, the oldest manuscripts initially referred to this language as ѧзꙑкъ словѣньскъ, "the Slavic language". In
4176-496: Is based on a general consensus reached by all major Bulgarian linguists in the 1930s and 1940s. In turn, the 39-consonant model was launched in the beginning of the 1950s under the influence of the ideas of Russian linguist Nikolai Trubetzkoy . Despite frequent objections, the support of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences has ensured Trubetzkoy's model virtual monopoly in state-issued phonologies and grammars since
4320-506: Is called свръхякане ( svrah-yakane ≈"over- ya -ing"). Bulgarian is the only Slavic language whose literary standard does not naturally contain the iotated e /jɛ/ (or its variant, e after a palatalized consonant /ʲɛ/ , except in non-Slavic foreign-loaned words). This sound combination is common in all modern Slavic languages (e.g. Czech medv ě d /ˈmɛdvjɛt/ "bear", Polish p ię ć /pʲɛ̃tɕ/ "five", Serbo-Croatian je len /jělen/ "deer", Ukrainian нема є /nemájɛ/ "there
4464-405: Is currently no consensus on the number of Bulgarian consonants, with one school of thought advocating for the existence of only 22 consonant phonemes and another one claiming that there are not fewer than 39 consonant phonemes. The main bone of contention is how to treat palatalized consonants : as separate phonemes or as allophones of their respective plain counterparts. The 22-consonant model
Bulgarian Air Force - Misplaced Pages Continue
4608-513: Is generally based on the Eastern dialects, also has the Eastern alternating reflex of yat . However, it has not incorporated the general Eastern umlaut of all synchronic or even historic "ya" sounds into "e" before front vowels – e.g. поляна ( polyana ) vs. полени ( poleni ) "meadow – meadows" or even жаба ( zhaba ) vs. жеби ( zhebi ) "frog – frogs", even though it co-occurs with the yat alternation in almost all Eastern dialects that have it (except
4752-569: Is no longer an Island." The aircraft was produced in both single- and two-seat versions, powered by several different engines, and was widely used for competition and training purposes. Military versions were bought by many countries, continuing in service until after the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Two restored examples – one in the United Kingdom and one in the United States – of original Blériot XI aircraft are thought to be
4896-500: Is not ...", Macedonian пишува ње /piʃuvaɲʲɛ/ "writing", etc.), as well as some Western Bulgarian dialectal forms – e.g. ора̀н’е /oˈraɲʲɛ/ (standard Bulgarian: оране /oˈranɛ/ , "ploughing"), however it is not represented in standard Bulgarian speech or writing. Even where /jɛ/ occurs in other Slavic words, in Standard Bulgarian it is usually transcribed and pronounced as pure /ɛ/ – e.g. Boris Yeltsin
5040-478: Is one more to describe a general category of unwitnessed events – the inferential (преизказно /prɛˈiskɐzno/ ) mood. However, most contemporary Bulgarian linguists usually exclude the subjunctive mood and the inferential mood from the list of Bulgarian moods (thus placing the number of Bulgarian moods at a total of 3: indicative, imperative and conditional) and do not consider them to be moods but view them as verbial morphosyntactic constructs or separate gramemes of
5184-522: Is one of the oldest air forces in Europe and the world. In recent times it has been actively taking part in numerous NATO missions and exercises in Europe . The current commanding officer of the Bulgarian Air Force is Major General Dimitar Hristov Petrov. The Bulgarian Air Force dates back to the end of the 19th century. At the 1892 Plovdiv International Fair , two lieutenants of
5328-401: Is perceived as more correct than двама/трима ученика , while the distinction is retained in cases such as два/три молива ('two/three pencils') versus тези моливи ('these pencils'). Cases exist only in the personal and some other pronouns (as they do in many other modern Indo-European languages ), with nominative , accusative , dative and vocative forms. Vestiges are present in
5472-418: Is that mutable parts of speech vary grammatically, whereas the immutable ones do not change, regardless of their use. The five classes of mutables are: nouns , adjectives , numerals , pronouns and verbs . Syntactically, the first four of these form the group of the noun or the nominal group. The immutables are: adverbs , prepositions , conjunctions , particles and interjections . Verbs and adverbs form
5616-555: Is used in all spheres of public life. As of 2011, it is spoken as a first language by about 6 million people in the country, or about four out of every five Bulgarian citizens. There is also a significant Bulgarian diaspora abroad. One of the main historically established communities are the Bessarabian Bulgarians , whose settlement in the Bessarabia region of nowadays Moldova and Ukraine dates mostly to
5760-399: Is used, and the choice between them is partly determined by their ending in singular and partly influenced by gender; in addition, irregular declension and alternative plural forms are common. Words ending in –а/–я (which are usually feminine) generally have the plural ending –и , upon dropping of the singular ending. Of nouns ending in a consonant, the feminine ones also use –и , whereas
5904-601: The 10th Composite Aviation Corps , called and including into it the newly transformed into air bases training regiments in Shtraklevo and Kamenets. The regiment in Dolna Mitropoliya was disbanded. With the end of the Cold war, Bulgaria's air force reduced to 226 aircraft. All MiG-25 fighters were grounded in 1991 and a large number of early MiG-21 variants were withdrawn from service and scrapped, with armament from
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6048-781: The Bulgarian Army flew in the 'La France' balloon owned by the Frenchman Eugène Godard . Later, inspired by the flight, they succeeded in convincing the Bulgarian General Staff that the Army should build a balloon force. Despite numerous refusals from military schools around Europe who would not teach Bulgarian officers to use airships, eventually the Imperial Aviation School in St. Petersburg enrolled Lieutenant Vasil Zlatarov as
6192-714: The Bulgarian Empire introduced the Glagolitic alphabet which was devised by the Saints Cyril and Methodius in the 850s. The Glagolitic alphabet was gradually superseded in later centuries by the Cyrillic script , developed around the Preslav Literary School , Bulgaria in the late 9th century. Several Cyrillic alphabets with 28 to 44 letters were used in the beginning and the middle of
6336-539: The Central Powers on 4 October 1915. The Aeroplane Section of the Bulgarian Army was reformed with assistance from Germany and Austria. Aircraft were deployed to Kumanovo Airfield in support of advancing Bulgarian forces, but bad weather initially prevented any flying. Until then they had completed 11 combat sorties from an airfield in Sofia (now the central railway station). As the frontline advanced,
6480-598: The DAR 2 (an indigenous variant of the German Albatros C.III of the same era). Both types became well-known and loved by the personnel of the former Air Troops and gained Bulgarian combat service experience. Development of a new type – the DAR 1 – was also started. During the course of 1926 the Airplane School was moved to the geographical center of the country. The town of Kazanlak was well suited, for it
6624-661: The Eurofighter Typhoon , Dassault Rafale , Saab JAS 39 Gripen , Mikoyan MiG-29 or MiG-35 . CAC/PAC JF-17 Thunder , Lockheed Martin F-16 and McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet . On 9 March 2011 the Swedish Government submitted its response to the RFI containing eight new Gripen C/D fighters. The Ministry of Defence extended the time limit for submittal of responses by two months due to the lack of responses from
6768-775: The German-Soviet Invasion of Poland stopped deliveries (although two more PZL.43A were delivered by the Germans later). In less than 3 years the Air Force inventory had grown up to 478 aircraft of which 135 were of Bulgarian construction. In the years 1938-1939, according to the design and with the support of the Polish PZL , a modern DSF factory was built in Lovech , where new PZL P.24J fighters were to be built under license. However, these plans were thwarted by
6912-697: The People's Republic of Bulgaria and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia began a policy of making Macedonia into the connecting link for the establishment of a new Balkan Federative Republic and stimulating here a development of distinct Macedonian consciousness. With the proclamation of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia as part of the Yugoslav federation, the new authorities also started measures that would overcome
7056-659: The Third Reich . As a part of the joint armed forces' effort on 26 June 1941 6 Avia B.71 and 9 Dornier Do 17M bombers were transferred to the Badem Chiflik airfield near Kavala (in Greece). They were tasked with anti-submarine patrols and air support for Italian shipping over the adjacent area of the Aegean Sea . In addition 9 Letov Š.328s based in Badem Chiflik provided the ground troops with air reconnaissance. At
7200-625: The Tsardom of Bulgaria signed the Tripartite Pact , becoming a formal ally of Germany. Under the treaty, Bulgaria allowed the use of its territory as a staging point for the invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece and some minor logistical support. Despite the impressive looking inventory, Bulgaria's fighter force in January 1941 consisted of only 91 machines, with just 18 of them modern Bf 109E monoplanes. A further 11 were PZL P.24B fighters, and
7344-713: The Tupolev Tu-2 . By 1954, these types were being withdrawn from service, as the Korean War marked the beginning of the jet fighter era and in 1955 a new wave of deliveries began, starting with the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 . Later additions included Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 and MiG-19 fighters and Ilyushin Il-28 bombers, as well as the Mil Mi-1 , the first helicopter. These aircraft were withdrawn in
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#17327721422337488-706: The United Kingdom (38,500 speakers in England and Wales as of 2011), France , the United States , and Canada (19,100 in 2011). The language is mainly split into two broad dialect areas, based on the different reflexes of the Proto-Slavic yat vowel (Ѣ). This split, which occurred at some point during the Middle Ages, led to the development of Bulgaria's: The literary language norm, which
7632-534: The Western Front and at Xanthi. They operated several types, including the Albatros D.III and Halberstadt, which would later mistakenly be listed on the Bulgarian inventory by some sources. On 30 September 1916 a French Farman F.40 bomber of Escadrille 384 was tasked with attacking the Bulgarian capital, Sofia . Two Bulgarian Fokker E.IIIs were positioned south of Sofia to intercept the intruder, while
7776-803: The accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007, Cyrillic became the third official script of the European Union , following the Latin and Greek scripts . Bulgarian possesses a phonology similar to that of the rest of the South Slavic languages, notably lacking Serbo-Croatian's phonemic vowel length and tones and alveo-palatal affricates. There is a general dichotomy between Eastern and Western dialects, with Eastern ones featuring consonant palatalization before front vowels ( / ɛ / and / i / ) and substantial vowel reduction of
7920-458: The classical languages have subsequently entered the language as well. Modern Bulgarian was based essentially on the Eastern dialects of the language, but its pronunciation is in many respects a compromise between East and West Bulgarian (see especially the phonetic sections below). Following the efforts of some figures of the National awakening of Bulgaria (most notably Neofit Rilski and Ivan Bogorov ), there had been many attempts to codify
8064-445: The person") or to the first nominal constituent of definite noun phrases (indefinite: добър човек , 'a good person'; definite: добри ят човек , " the good person"). There are four singular definite articles. Again, the choice between them is largely determined by the noun's ending in the singular. Nouns that end in a consonant and are masculine use –ът/–ят, when they are grammatical subjects , and –а/–я elsewhere. Nouns that end in
8208-484: The ya – e alternation. The letter was used in each occurrence of such a root, regardless of the actual pronunciation of the vowel: thus, both ml ya ko and ml e kar were spelled with (Ѣ). Among other things, this was seen as a way to "reconcile" the Western and the Eastern dialects and maintain language unity at a time when much of Bulgaria's Western dialect area was controlled by Serbia and Greece , but there were still hopes and occasional attempts to recover it. With
8352-411: The 1945 orthographic reform, this letter was abolished and the present spelling was introduced, reflecting the alternation in pronunciation. This had implications for some grammatical constructions: Sometimes, with the changes, words began to be spelled as other words with different meanings, e.g.: In spite of the literary norm regarding the yat vowel, many people living in Western Bulgaria, including
8496-422: The 1960s. However, its reception abroad has been lukewarm, with a number of authors either calling the model into question or outright rejecting it. Thus, the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association only lists 22 consonants in Bulgarian's consonant inventory . The parts of speech in Bulgarian are divided in ten types, which are categorized in two broad classes: mutable and immutable. The difference
8640-442: The 1970s, when the last wave of modernization began. In June 1979, the Mil Mi-24 Hind entered service through a significant re-equipment program and boosted the capabilities of the BAF. The Sukhoi Su-22 and Su-25 entered service in 1988 in the strike and reconnaissance role. 40 Su-25K/KUBs and 21 Su-22M4/UM-3s were delivered. In 1993, the air regiments in Bezmer and Sadovo were experimentally transformed into "air bases" with
8784-411: The 19th century during the efforts on the codification of Modern Bulgarian until an alphabet with 32 letters, proposed by Marin Drinov , gained prominence in the 1870s. The alphabet of Marin Drinov was used until the orthographic reform of 1945, when the letters yat (uppercase Ѣ, lowercase ѣ) and yus (uppercase Ѫ, lowercase ѫ) were removed from its alphabet, reducing the number of letters to 30. With
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#17327721422338928-415: The 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Army Aviation Orlyaks (Army Air Groups or air regiments), each attached to the correspondingly-numbered field army. Each orlyak had a fighter, a line bomber and two reconnaissance yatos (squadrons). There was also an Independent Aviation corps, which combined the 5th Bomber and 6th Fighter Regiments. The training units consisted of the "Junker" School Orlyak at Vrazhdebna airfield,
9072-504: The 2nd Training Orlyak at Telish airfield (called the Blind Flying Training School) and the 3rd Training Orlyak at Stara Zagora airfield. In 1940, the Bulgarian aviation industry provided the air force with 42 DAR 9 Siniger and 45 Kaproni-Bulgarski KB-5 Chuchuliga aircraft, along with preparing for serial production of the KB-6 – Bulgaria's first twin-engined aircraft. At year's end, the Bulgarians had 595 aircraft (of which 258 were combat aircraft) and 10,287 personnel. On 1 March 1941,
9216-401: The 805 km (500 mi) Circuit de l'Est race, and another Blériot flown by Émile Aubrun was the only other aircraft to finish the course. In October 1910, Claude Grahame-White won the second competition for the Gordon Bennett Trophy flying a Type XI fitted with a 75 kW (100 hp) Gnome, beating a similar aircraft flown by Leblanc, which force-landed on the last lap. During
9360-538: The Allied commission. This almost resulted in the destruction of the whole Vrazhdebna Airfield , but the disbandment of the unit prevented this from happening. An Aeroflight Section under the Ministry of Railways , Postal Service and Telegraph was created in 1920. Bulgarian aviation personnel assembled two airplanes from hidden spares and parts, salvaged from the destroyed military airplanes. The two aircraft, known as "the mixed planes", recorded about 1000 flight hours altogether. The sole remaining Bulgarian Fokker D.VII
9504-404: The Allies, especially the British and French. The First Aeroplane Section (the country's only aircraft unit) was attached to the Second Bulgarian Army. It flew 255 sorties compared to 397 flown by the four squadrons of the Entente it opposed, and operated the following types: In addition, the Bulgarian Navy used the following airplanes: A number of Bulgarian pilots flew with German air units at
9648-401: The Banat region now split between Romania, Serbia and Hungary. They speak the Banat Bulgarian dialect , which has had its own written standard and a historically important literary tradition. There are Bulgarian speakers in neighbouring countries as well. The regional dialects of Bulgarian and Macedonian form a dialect continuum, and there is no well-defined boundary where one language ends and
9792-407: The Black Sea shores the "Galata" Fighter Orlyak was established at NAS Chaika , Varna , with the 10 Bf 109E-4s and 6 Avia B-534s. The S.328s were also used for anti-submarine patrols over the Black Sea , flying out of the Sarafovo and Balchik airfields. At the end of 1941 the inventory of His Majesty's Air Troops consisted of 609 aircraft of 40 different types. On 22 June 1941, Germany invaded
9936-480: The Blériot schools, around half the total number of licences issued. Flight training was offered free to those who had bought a Blériot aircraft: for others, it initially cost 2,000 francs, this being reduced to 800 francs in 1912. A gifted pupil favoured by good weather could gain his license in as little as eight days, although for some it took as long as six weeks. There were no dual-control aircraft in these early days, training simply consisting of basic instruction on
10080-461: The DAR 1 biplane were produced and entered service with the Aeroflight Directorate during 1926. The 1927 structure of the Directorate was the following: In 1928 the Ministry of War started the ambitious 10-year program for development of the military aviation (still banned by the peace treaty). According to the plan the following structure had to be achieved: In 1931 Bulgaria signed the Warsaw Treaty, concerning international civil air activities and
10224-508: The Middle Bulgarian period this name was gradually replaced by the name ѧзꙑкъ блъгарьскъ, the "Bulgarian language". In some cases, this name was used not only with regard to the contemporary Middle Bulgarian language of the copyist but also to the period of Old Bulgarian. A most notable example of anachronism is the Service of Saint Cyril from Skopje (Скопски миней), a 13th-century Middle Bulgarian manuscript from northern Macedonia according to which St. Cyril preached with "Bulgarian" books among
10368-697: The Moravian Slavs. The first mention of the language as the "Bulgarian language" instead of the "Slavonic language" comes in the work of the Greek clergy of the Archbishopric of Ohrid in the 11th century, for example in the Greek hagiography of Clement of Ohrid by Theophylact of Ohrid (late 11th century). During the Middle Bulgarian period, the language underwent dramatic changes, losing
10512-541: The Paris Aero Salon in December 1908, the aircraft was powered by a 26 kW (35 hp) 7-cylinder R.E.P. engine driving a four-bladed paddle-type propeller. The aircraft was first flown at Issy-les-Moulineaux on 23 January 1909. Although the aircraft handled well, the engine proved extremely unreliable and, at the suggestion of his mechanic Ferdinand Collin, Blériot made contact with Alessandro Anzani ,
10656-685: The Slavonic case system , but preserving the rich verb system (while the development was exactly the opposite in other Slavic languages) and developing a definite article. It was influenced by its non-Slavic neighbors in the Balkan language area (mostly grammatically) and later also by Turkish , which was the official language of the Ottoman Empire , in the form of the Ottoman Turkish language , mostly lexically. The damaskin texts mark
10800-565: The Soviet Union , but Bulgaria refused to take part, although it did declare war with Great Britain and the United States of America in December 1941. Bulgaria's inaction against the Soviet Union meant that supplies of German aircraft slowed to a trickle, with only four aircraft delivered from January to September 1942. The war declared by the Tsardom of Bulgaria against the US and Great Britain
10944-725: The Sovietized Bulgarian People's Army , adopted the doctrine of the Soviet deep battle during the Cold War . The force expanded rapidly with deliveries of different types of combat aircraft. The first shipments of Soviet equipment arrived immediately after the end of World War II, mostly consisting of propeller-driven aircraft, such as the Ilyushin Il-2 (120 Il-2 and 10 Il-2U), the Ilyushin Il-10 and
11088-516: The Spanish Civil War could not be delivered by sea and were instead shipped delayed by rail. The first aircraft entered service in the summer of 1937. The reestablished air force was satisfied with the performance of new planes and in 1938, a second order was placed for 42 PZL.43A light bombers and 12 PZL P.24F fighters, which differed from the earlier versions in having more powerful engines, stronger armament and other improvements. Before
11232-511: The area of modern Bulgaria, North Macedonia and parts of Northern Greece as a group of Bulgarian dialects. In contrast, Serbian sources tended to label them "south Serbian" dialects. Some local naming conventions included bolgárski , bugárski and so forth. The codifiers of the standard Bulgarian language, however, did not wish to make any allowances for a pluricentric "Bulgaro-Macedonian" compromise. In 1870 Marin Drinov , who played
11376-497: The army aviation inventory. The Bulgarian balloon observers also took part in the war. They were most active on the Dobrudzha Front, where aircraft activities were scarce (a German bomber squadron, flying missions against Bucharest and Constanţa : "Gotha" bombers accounted for the most flights). Near the Bulgarian city of Yambol an airship hangar was constructed to house German airships. The airship Schütte-Lanz SL 10
11520-417: The arrival of Polish aircraft, the first combat aircraft that entered Bulgarian service in 1937 were 12 Arado Ar 65 fighters, 12 Heinkel He 51 fighters, 12 Dornier Do 11 bombers and 12 Heinkel He 45 B reconnaissance aircraft. These machines were donated personally to Tsar Boris III by Hermann Göring . In 1937, during the traditional military parade of St. George's Day (National Day of Bravery and of
11664-441: The broader Bulgarian pluricentric dialectal continuum . Outside Bulgaria and Greece, Macedonian is generally considered an autonomous language within the South Slavic dialect continuum. Sociolinguists agree that the question whether Macedonian is a dialect of Bulgarian or a language is a political one and cannot be resolved on a purely linguistic basis, because dialect continua do not allow for either/or judgements. In 886 AD,
11808-470: The capital Sofia , will fail to observe its rules. While the norm requires the realizations vidyal vs. videli (he has seen; they have seen), some natives of Western Bulgaria will preserve their local dialect pronunciation with "e" for all instances of "yat" (e.g. videl , videli ). Others, attempting to adhere to the norm, will actually use the "ya" sound even in cases where the standard language has "e" (e.g. vidyal , vidyali ). The latter hypercorrection
11952-469: The citizens of Sofia, the "Black" days were 14 and 24 November, 10 and 20 December 1943, and 10 January and 16, 24, 30 March and 17 April 1944 when large formations of B-17 and B-24 bombers ruined parts of the capital city including the central area. The Bulgarians also see successes. On 1 August 1943, an enormous armada of about 700 American Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers flew over several Balkan countries their way to bomb "the taproot of German might",
12096-762: The city, which was until then considered nearly impregnable. During the First Balkan War Bulgarian aviation undertook 70 combat sorties, including 11 bombing raids, during the Second Balkan War it undertook 6 sorties. All in all, during both wars, there were over 230 aircraft sorties, including non-combat flights. In addition to the Albatros F.2, Bulgaria flew Blériot XI and XXI , Bristol Prier , Farman VII and Nieuport IV aircraft, as well as examples provided by Sommer and Voisin. The Tsardom of Bulgaria entered World War I as an ally of
12240-553: The closely related Macedonian language (collectively forming the East South Slavic languages ), it is a member of the Balkan sprachbund and South Slavic dialect continuum of the Indo-European language family . The two languages have several characteristics that set them apart from all other Slavic languages , including the elimination of case declension , the development of a suffixed definite article , and
12384-412: The completion of the action of the verb and form past perfective (aorist) forms; imperfective ones are neutral with regard to it and form past imperfective forms. Most Bulgarian verbs can be grouped in perfective-imperfective pairs (imperfective/perfective: идвам/дойда "come", пристигам/пристигна "arrive"). Perfective verbs can be usually formed from imperfective ones by suffixation or prefixation, but
12528-459: The constructor Herr Hermann Winter to help establish an aviation factory. Named The State's Aeroconstruction Atelliér or Darzhavna Aeroplanna Rabotilnitsa (DAR) the factory was initially managed by the first Bulgarian pilot to achieve an aerial victory – Mr. Marko Parvanov. The first aircraft types produced at the plant were the U-1 or "Uzounov-1" (an indigenous variant of the wartime German DFW C.V) and
12672-537: The country was assigned the new civil registration – LZ-??? (the latter three signs being a combination of capital letters). In 1933 the Bulgarian Council of Ministers approved the following wartime order of battle of the aviation: In 1934 the Aviation Regiment was renamed His Majesty's Air Troops, comprising a headquarters, with two army orlyaks (based at Bozhurishte and Plovdiv airfields),
12816-520: The crew were captured. It would receive Bulgarian insignia and be used to bomb Allied positions at night. Four such sorties were flown before being shot down on 23 May 1918. A Nieuport 24bis and a Nieuport 27 were also captured. Lieutenant Vladimir Balan, a Bulgarian fighter pilot who had been flying with a German Jasta on the Western Front, was flying one of the Nieuports when he shot down
12960-580: The early 19th century. There were 134,000 Bulgarian speakers in Ukraine at the 2001 census, 41,800 in Moldova as of the 2014 census (of which 15,300 were habitual users of the language), and presumably a significant proportion of the 13,200 ethnic Bulgarians residing in neighbouring Transnistria in 2016. Another community abroad are the Banat Bulgarians , who migrated in the 17th century to
13104-612: The first bombing attacks. Later that month the Bulgarian Aviation Corps was expanded to three Aeroplane Platoons. Foreign volunteers began flying operational sorties alongside Bulgarian pilots and carried out reconnaissance , leaflet-dropping and bombing missions. During the war at least three aircraft were shot down. Considerable help was received from the Russians in terms of aircraft, maintenance and training. Due to low aircraft serviceability and frequent accidents,
13248-515: The first new airplanes were acquired. Those were machines of the Potez VIII , Caudron C.59 , Hanriot HD.14 and Bristol Tourer Type 29; Avro 522 seaplanes were also procured. During the same year the Bulgarian airplane construction specialist Atanas Grigorov (who obtained his qualification at the "Albatroswerke – Berlin") assembled his seaplane, called "Grigorov-1". The aircraft made several test-flights, recording excellent characteristics, but
13392-501: The first production Type XI, going on to become one of the chief instructors at the flying schools established by Blériot. In February 1912 the future of the Type XI was threatened by the French army placing a ban on the use of all monoplanes. This was the result of a series of accidents in which Blériot aircraft had suffered wing failure in flight. The first of these incidents had occurred on 4 January 1910, killing Léon Delagrange , and
13536-505: The following: The Chaika Naval Seaplane station at Varna was under Naval command. On 27 November 1919 the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine was signed. In accordance with the treaty the Tsardom of Bulgaria was banned from operating military aircraft under any form for the next 20 years. All Bulgarian airplanes, balloons, aviation equipment, weaponry and ammunition were to be destroyed under Allied control and all personnel demobilised. Under
13680-512: The giant oil refineries at Ploiești , Romania. Termed Operation Tidal Wave , the aircraft flew over Bulgarian territory and Bulgarian fighter pilots Sub-lieutenant Peter Bochev (5 victories), Captain Tschudomir Toplodolski (4 victories), Lieutenant Stoyan Stoyanov (5 victories) and Sublieutenant Hristo Krastev (1 victory) inflicted heavy losses on the bombers. In total, about 23,000 enemy sorties were registered over Bulgaria in
13824-544: The group of the verb or the verbal group. Nouns and adjectives have the categories grammatical gender , number , case (only vocative ) and definiteness in Bulgarian. Adjectives and adjectival pronouns agree with nouns in number and gender. Pronouns have gender and number and retain (as in nearly all Indo-European languages ) a more significant part of the case system. There are three grammatical genders in Bulgarian: masculine , feminine and neuter . The gender of
13968-400: The lack of a verb infinitive . They retain and have further developed the Proto-Slavic verb system (albeit analytically). One such major development is the innovation of evidential verb forms to encode for the source of information: witnessed, inferred, or reported. It is the official language of Bulgaria , and since 2007 has been among the official languages of the European Union . It
14112-454: The last of the MiG-21s were put out of service and the attack and defence branches of the Bulgarian Air Force relied solely on MiG-29s. About 16 MiG-29 fighters were modernised in order to meet NATO standards. In January 2011, the Bulgarian Ministry of Defence issued a Request for Information (RFI) regarding the acquisition of eight multi-role fighters. The main competitors were expected to be
14256-530: The low vowels / ɛ / , / ɔ / and / a / in unstressed position, sometimes leading to neutralisation between / ɛ / and / i / , / ɔ / and / u / , and / a / and / ɤ / . Both patterns have partial parallels in Russian, leading to partially similar sounds. In turn, the Western dialects generally do not have any allophonic palatalization and exhibit minor, if any, vowel reduction. Standard Bulgarian keeps
14400-475: The main undercarriage was also like that of the Type VIII, with the wheels mounted in castering trailing arms which could slide up and down steel tubes, the movement being sprung by bungee cords . This simple and ingenious design allowed crosswind landings with less risk of damage. A sprung tailwheel was fitted to the rear fuselage in front of the tailplane, with a similar castering arrangement. When shown at
14544-399: The masculine ones usually have –и for polysyllables and –ове for monosyllables (however, exceptions are especially common in this group). Nouns ending in –о/–е (most of which are neuter) mostly use the suffixes –а, –я (both of which require the dropping of the singular endings) and –та . With cardinal numbers and related words such as няколко ('several'), masculine nouns use
14688-522: The merger of the air regiments with the aviation-technical and airfield service battalions, that were independent from them. Around 1995 – 1996 all the air regiments were transformed into air bases (brigade equivalents) and two main commands were formed – Air Defence Command (Командване за противовъздушна отбрана), merging the two air defence divisions and the Tactical Aviation Command (Командване Тактическа Авиация), by reorganisation of
14832-477: The most significant exception from the above are the relatively numerous nouns that end in a consonant and yet are feminine: these comprise, firstly, a large group of nouns with zero ending expressing quality, degree or an abstraction, including all nouns ending on –ост/–ест -{ost/est} ( мъдрост /ˈmɤdrost/ 'wisdom', низост /ˈnizost/ 'vileness', прелест /ˈprɛlɛst/ 'loveliness', болест /ˈbɔlɛst/ 'sickness', любов /ljuˈbɔf/ 'love'), and secondly,
14976-659: The noun can largely be inferred from its ending: nouns ending in a consonant ("zero ending") are generally masculine (for example, град /ɡrat/ 'city', син /sin/ 'son', мъж /mɤʃ/ 'man'; those ending in –а/–я (-a/-ya) ( жена /ʒɛˈna/ 'woman', дъщеря /dɐʃtɛrˈja/ 'daughter', улица /ˈulitsɐ/ 'street') are normally feminine; and nouns ending in –е, –о are almost always neuter ( дете /dɛˈtɛ/ 'child', езеро /ˈɛzɛro/ 'lake'), as are those rare words (usually loanwords) that end in –и, –у, and –ю ( цунами /tsuˈnami/ ' tsunami ', табу /tɐˈbu/ 'taboo', меню /mɛˈnju/ 'menu'). Perhaps
15120-994: The noun they are appended to. They may also take the definite article as explained above. Pronouns may vary in gender, number, and definiteness, and are the only parts of speech that have retained case inflections. Three cases are exhibited by some groups of pronouns – nominative, accusative and dative. The distinguishable types of pronouns include the following: personal, relative, reflexive, interrogative, negative, indefinitive, summative and possessive. A Bulgarian verb has many distinct forms, as it varies in person, number, voice, aspect, mood, tense and in some cases gender. Finite verbal forms are simple or compound and agree with subjects in person (first, second and third) and number (singular, plural). In addition to that, past compound forms using participles vary in gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) and voice (active and passive) as well as aspect (perfective/aorist and imperfective). Bulgarian verbs express lexical aspect : perfective verbs signify
15264-480: The number of Turkish and other Balkan loans. Today one difference between Bulgarian dialects in the country and literary spoken Bulgarian is the significant presence of Old Bulgarian words and even word forms in the latter. Russian loans are distinguished from Old Bulgarian ones on the basis of the presence of specifically Russian phonetic changes, as in оборот (turnover, rev), непонятен (incomprehensible), ядро (nucleus) and others. Many other loans from French, English and
15408-470: The number of missions flown was relatively low. Despite that, the Bulgarian airmen and their foreign allies were able to gather enough intelligence for the Army General Staff to help successfully capture of the city after a long siege . Although inflicting little physical damage, the bombs had a devastating effect on the defending Turkish garrison's morale and played a crucial part in the fall of
15552-548: The opportunity to acquire large numbers of ex-Czechoslovak aircraft from the Germans at a bargain price. Bulgaria purchased 78 Avia B-534 biplane fighters, 32 Avia B-71 twin-engine bombers (a license version of the Soviet SB bomber), 12 Bloch MB.200 twin-engine bombers, 62 Letov Š-328 reconnaissance aircraft and 28 Avia Bs.122 trainers. Deliveries of the second batch of Polish orders started in early 1939, with 33 PZL.43A light bombers and 8 PZL P.24F fighters delivered before
15696-776: The other begins. Within the limits of the Republic of North Macedonia a strong separate Macedonian identity has emerged since the Second World War, even though there still are a small number of citizens who identify their language as Bulgarian. Beyond the borders of North Macedonia, the situation is more fluid, and the pockets of speakers of the related regional dialects in Albania and in Greece variously identify their language as Macedonian or as Bulgarian. In Serbia , there were 13,300 speakers as of 2011, mainly concentrated in
15840-601: The other competitors. Bulgarian language Rup Moesian Bulgarian ( / b ʌ l ˈ ɡ ɛər i ə n / , / b ʊ l ˈ -/ bu(u)l- GAIR -ee-ən ; български език , bŭlgarski ezik , pronounced [ˈbɤɫɡɐrski] ) is an Eastern South Slavic language spoken in Southeast Europe , primarily in Bulgaria . It is the language of the Bulgarians . Along with
15984-558: The outbreak of World War II and the factory produced mainly training planes, including the most-produced Bulgarian aircraft, the Laz-7. At the beginning of World War II , the combat air fleet comprised 374 machines in various roles. In addition orders were placed for 10 Messerschmitt Bf 109E-4 fighters, 11 Dornier Do 17 M/P bombers, 6 Messerschmitt Bf 108 light liaison and utility aircraft, 24 Arado Ar 96 B-2 and 14 Bücker-Bestmann Bü 131 trainers. The Air Force order of battle comprised
16128-551: The outbreak of the First World War, and a number of variations were produced. Various types of engine were fitted, including the 120° Y-configuration, "full radial" three-cylinder Anzani (the restored example at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome still flies with this) and the 37 kW (50 hp) and 52 kW (70 hp), seven-cylinder Gnome rotary engines . Both single and two-seat versions were built, and there were variations in wingspan and fuselage length. In later aircraft
16272-429: The past pluperfect subjunctive. Perfect constructions use a single auxiliary "be". The traditional interpretation is that in addition to the four moods (наклонения /nəkloˈnɛnijɐ/ ) shared by most other European languages – indicative (изявително, /izʲəˈvitɛɫno/ ) imperative (повелително /poveˈlitelno/ ), subjunctive ( подчинително /pottʃiˈnitɛɫno/ ) and conditional (условно, /oˈsɫɔvno/ ) – in Bulgarian there
16416-549: The patron-saint of the Bulgarian Armed Forces), military aircraft officially debuted as a part of the armed forces after a nearly two-decade hiatus. A month later Boris III himself presented the Bulgarian air regiments with their new combat flags at an official ceremony at Vrazhdebna Airfield. When the Third Reich occupied Czechoslovakia in 1938, the Czechoslovak air force was broken up. Bulgaria used
16560-468: The pro-Bulgarian feeling among parts of its population and in 1945 a separate Macedonian language was codified. After 1958, when the pressure from Moscow decreased, Sofia reverted to the view that the Macedonian language did not exist as a separate language. Nowadays, Bulgarian and Greek linguists, as well as some linguists from other countries, still consider the various Macedonian dialects as part of
16704-683: The race Leblanc had established a new world speed record. In 1911, Andre Beaumont won the Circuit of Europe in a Type XI and another, flown by Roland Garros , came second. Louis Blériot established his first flying school at Etampes near Rouen in 1909. Another was started at Pau , where the climate made year-round flying more practical, in early 1910 and in September 1910 a third was established at Hendon Aerodrome near London. A considerable number of pilots were trained: by 1914 nearly 1,000 pilots had gained their Aero Club de France license at
16848-519: The remainder were obsolete Avia B-534 biplanes. The ground-based air defenses were made up of only 8 88 mm (3.5 in) and 6 20 mm (0.79 in) AA guns. To help its new ally the 12th Army of the Wehrmacht offered support with its aircraft and air defence assets and provided 8 Freya-type radars dispersed throughout the country. A dispersed observation and reporting system was gradually developed. The first air strike against Bulgarian targets
16992-466: The resultant verb often deviates in meaning from the original. In the pair examples above, aspect is stem-specific and therefore there is no difference in meaning. In Bulgarian, there is also grammatical aspect . Three grammatical aspects are distinguishable: neutral, perfect and pluperfect. The neutral aspect comprises the three simple tenses and the future tense. The pluperfect is manifest in tenses that use double or triple auxiliary "be" participles like
17136-525: The singular ones, but may also provide some clues to it: the ending –и (-i) is more likely to be used with a masculine or feminine noun ( факти /ˈfakti/ 'facts', болести /ˈbɔlɛsti/ 'sicknesses'), while one in –а/–я belongs more often to a neuter noun ( езера /ɛzɛˈra/ 'lakes'). Also, the plural ending –ове /ovɛ/ occurs only in masculine nouns. Two numbers are distinguished in Bulgarian– singular and plural . A variety of plural suffixes
17280-588: The so-called Western Outlands along the border with Bulgaria. Bulgarian is also spoken in Turkey: natively by Pomaks , and as a second language by many Bulgarian Turks who emigrated from Bulgaria, mostly during the " Big Excursion " of 1989. The language is also represented among the diaspora in Western Europe and North America, which has been steadily growing since the 1990s. Countries with significant numbers of speakers include Germany , Spain , Italy ,
17424-589: The southern Bulgarian coastline. At the end of 1917 the German station was transferred to the Bulgarian Navy. At the time of the armistice the Bulgarian fleet air arm comprised two seaplane stations, a forward replenishment base, three hangars, three workshops, ammunition warehouses and 10 seaplanes. After the cease-fire the machines were used for mine reconnaissance. At the end of 1919 they are transported by train to Bozhurishte Airfield to be scrapped along with
17568-424: The squadron leader of No. 17 Squadron RAF . Bulgarian naval aviators also played an important role in the air war. In 1912 Petty-Officers Lyapchev and Mikhailov were sent, along with other officers and seamen, to the German naval aviation forming facilities for training. Another group of naval personnel followed in the beginning of the First World War. Training was held at List, Nordenhai and Kiel. In November 1915
17712-491: The terms of the treaty any aircraft procured for civilian purposes had to be bought from the countries on the winning side. The combined engine power for any airplane (including multi-engined ones) was not to exceed 180 hp. In addition, the Bulgarian airspace was to be controlled by the allies and used according to the victorious countries' interests. In accordance with the treaty during 1920 no less than 70 airplanes , 110 aircraft engines , 3 air balloons, 76 machine guns ,
17856-529: The tip elevators were replaced by a more conventional trailing edge elevator, the tailwheel was replaced by a skid, and the former "house-roof" five-member dorsal cabane was replaced by a simpler, four-sided pyramidally framed unit similar to the ventral arrangement for the later rotary-powered versions. Blériot marketed the aircraft in four categories: trainers, sport or touring models, military aircraft, and racing or exhibition aircraft. The Type XI took part in many competitions and races. In August 1910 Leblanc won
18000-570: The trainers for the MiG-21 and MiG-23 also being removed. In 1998, four air bases were closed down: Gabrovnitsa Air Base , Balchik Air Base , Uzundzhovo Air Base and Shtraklevo Air Base . In 2000, further air bases were closed, with the Stara Zagora (which operated Mi-24s) Air Base being suspended. Then, in 2001 three more bases were closed down: Dobrich Air Base , Ravnets Air Base and Cheshnegirovo Air Base . In 2003, Dobroslavtsi Air Base
18144-445: The transition from Middle Bulgarian to New Bulgarian, which was standardized in the 19th century. As a national revival occurred toward the end of the period of Ottoman rule (mostly during the 19th century), a modern Bulgarian literary language gradually emerged that drew heavily on Church Slavonic/Old Bulgarian (and to some extent on literary Russian , which had preserved many lexical items from Church Slavonic) and later reduced
18288-516: The two oldest flyable aircraft in the world. The Blériot XI , largely designed by Raymond Saulnier , was a development of the Blériot VIII , which Blériot had flown successfully in 1908. Like its predecessor, it was a tractor-configuration monoplane with a partially covered box-girder fuselage built from ash with wire cross bracing. The principal difference was the use of wing warping for lateral control. The tail surfaces consisted of
18432-572: The unit re-deployed to airfields near Belitsa and Xanthi , in modern Greece . Newly acquired German LVG aircraft were hastily pressed into action. Two more airfields were constructed near Udovo and Levunovo. The Allies began flying reconnaissance and bomber sorties against Bulgarian units on the Southern Balkan Front . Throughout World War I Bulgarian military aviation experienced a steady increase in both numbers and quality of aircraft; however, they remained inferior to those flown by
18576-582: The use of the controls followed by solo taxying exercises, progressing to short straight-line flights and then to circuits. To gain a license, a pilot had to make three circular flights of more than 5 km (3 mi), landing within 150 m (490 ft) of a designated point. The first Blériot XIs entered military service in Italy and France in 1910, and a year later some were used by Italy in North Africa (the first use of heavier-than-air aircraft in
18720-535: The verb class. The possible existence of a few other moods has been discussed in the literature. Most Bulgarian school grammars teach the traditional view of 4 Bulgarian moods (as described above, but excluding the subjunctive and including the inferential). There are three grammatically distinctive positions in time – present, past and future – which combine with aspect and mood to produce a number of formations. Normally, in grammar books these formations are viewed as separate tenses – i. e. "past imperfect" would mean that
18864-405: The verb is in past tense, in the imperfective aspect, and in the indicative mood (since no other mood is shown). There are more than 40 different tenses across Bulgarian's two aspects and five moods. Bl%C3%A9riot XI The Blériot XI is a French aircraft from the pioneer era of aviation. The first example was used by Louis Blériot to make the first flight across the English Channel in
19008-458: The wind had dropped in the morning and the skies had cleared, Blériot took off at sunrise. Flying without the aid of a compass, he deviated to the east of his intended course, but, nonetheless, spotted the English coast to his left. Battling turbulent wind conditions, Blériot made a heavy "pancake" landing, nearly collapsing the undercarriage and shattering one blade of the propeller, but he was unhurt. The flight had taken 36.5 minutes and made Blériot
19152-549: The years 1943–1944. Bulgarian pilots fought an enemy outnumbering them by 10 to 50 times. Some of the best pilots were Lieutenant Stoyanov, Captain Toplodolski, and Sub-Lieutenants Bochev, Cvetkov, and Damev. 19 Bulgarian pilots died in this war against the Allies. The Allies lost 60 planes, shot down by Bulgarian fighters and about 430 airmen, 325 of which were taken as POWs. The Bulgarian Air Force, along with other branches of
19296-455: Was a great demand for Blériot XIs. By the end of September 1909, orders had been received for 103 aircraft. After an accident at an aviation meeting in Istanbul in December 1909, Blériot gave up competition flying, and the company's entries for competitions were flown by other pilots, including Alfred Leblanc , who had managed the logistics of the cross-channel flight, and subsequently bought
19440-499: Was a major advance in French aircraft technology and was the first European propeller to rival the efficiency of the propellers used by the Wright Brothers . During early July, Blériot was occupied with flight trials of a new aircraft, the two-seater Type XII , but resumed flying the Type XI on 18 July. By then, the small cabane fin had been removed and the wingspan increased by 79 cm (31 in). On 26 June, he managed
19584-400: Was a tragedy for the little country. The city of Sofia and Bulgarian towns and villages were hit by air strikes in late 1943 and in 1944. In all, 187 inhabited places were attacked, 45,000 destructive and incendiary bombs were dropped. There were about 2,000 casualties, and about 4700 wounded, 12,000 damaged or ruined buildings and the total losses were estimated at nearly 24 billion dollars. For
19728-636: Was also closed down and the MiG-23s were withdrawn from service as they were more expensive to run than the MiG-21s. In February 2004 the Su-22s, which were stationed first in Dobrich then in Bezmer, were withdrawn. Since the early 2000s, Bulgaria has been trying actively to restructure its armed forces as a whole and a lot of attention has been placed on keeping the aging Soviet-era aircraft operational. In 2015,
19872-489: Was carried out by 4 Yugoslav Dornier Do 17 Kb-1 on 6 April 1941 on the city of Kyustendil and its railway station killing 47 and injuring 95, mostly civilians. The air strikes intensified in the following days; British Royal Air Force units based in Greece participated in the attacks as well. At the end of April, the 2nd and 5th Bulgarian armies occupied Greek and Yugoslav territories according to an agreement with
20016-549: Was damaged beyond repair by a storm in the hangar where it was stationed. Also in 1924 the Aeroplane Section was expanded to an Aeroflight Directorate still under the Ministry of Railways, Postal Service and Telegraph. 1925 saw the Potez XVII , Bristol Lucifer and Macchi 2000/18 flying boat boosting the country's aircraft inventory. The Bulgarian government invited a group of German aircraft engineers, headed by
20160-598: Was disguised as a two-seater, thus being classified as a trainer and returning to active service. On 5 July 1923 Bulgaria ratified the International Civil Aviation Treaty. From that moment on its air vehicles would carry a registration in the form B-B??? (the latter three signs being a combination of capital letters). In 1923 the first group of cadets, called "student-flyers" entered the Flying school at Vrazhdebna AF. The following year (1924)
20304-599: Was established at a new airfield close to the fighting. Intelligence about the Turkish army strength and dispositions in the Edirne was required, and on 16 October 1912 , two aviators performed a reconnaissance flight over the city in an Albatros F.2 biplane, also dropping two bombs. This was not only the first military mission performed by a Bulgarian aircraft, but also the first combat use of an aircraft in Europe and one of
20448-572: Was far away from the Allied Control Commission. The Czechoslovak company Aero Vodochody also built an aircraft factory near that city, but its models were not up to the requirements of the Bulgarian authorities. After an unsuccessful switch to automotive production, the plant was finally sold to the Italian Caproni company. The factory became popular as "Balgarski Kaproni" or "Bulgarian Caproni". The first examples of
20592-507: Was generally attributed to the fact that Delagrange had fitted an over-powerful engine, so overstressing the airframe. A similar accident had killed Peruvian pilot Jorge Chavez at the end of 1910 at the end of the first flight over the Alps, and in response to this the wing spars of the Blériot had been strengthened. A later accident prompted further strengthening of the spars. Blériot produced
20736-615: Was the first to use it. According to documents of the time it was assigned to the Bulgarian Army, but was actually under German control. It was lost during a flight over the Black Sea in July 1916. In August 1916 the LZ 101 replaced it. After performing raids on targets in Romania and Greece it returned to Germany in August 1917. In November 1917 the naval airship L 59 arrived. That airship flew
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