Belgium Air Force Component
Sioux celebrations
The origin of the Belgian Air Component’s air transport force goes back to World War Two when Belgian pilots flew Douglas C-47 Dakotas in a number of RAF Transport Command squadrons. Shortly after the war, a Belgian manned detachment was created within the Metropolitan Communications Squadron at RAF Hendon providing among others an air service between London and Brussels. The detachment moved to Haren-Evere on August 15, 1946, to become part of the newly formed Belgian Air Force on October 15, 1946. It was renamed 169 Wing on April 1, 1947, comprising 366 Squadron flying the C-47 and 367 Squadron equipped with a wide variety of communications aircraft, such as the Anson, Dominie, Oxford and Proctor. On May 1, 1948, the 15th Wing received its current designation, as did 20 and 21 Squadrons. The Sioux Indian was adopted as the units’ badge on September 1, 1949: 20 Squadron’s in a blue circle and 21 Squadron’s in a red circle. The Belgian Air Force air transport force moved to its current location at Melsbroek Air Base in 1950.
20 Squadron operated 10 Lockheed C-130H Hercules tactical transport aircraft. Six were delivered in 1972 (serial numbers CH-01 to CH-06) and six in 1973 (CH-07 to CH-12). CH-06 crashed after a multiple bird strike at Eindhoven Air Base in the Netherlands on July 15, 1996, killing its crew of four and 30 of its 37 passengers. CH-02 was damaged beyond repair on May 5, 2006, in a fire at SABENA Technics’ Hangar 40 at Zaventem Airport during maintenance. It was replaced by the former US Air Force C-130E 64-0552 (c/n 382-4047), which became CH-13 when formally handed over to the Belgian Air Component on March 17, 2009. CH-08 was withdrawn from use on December 27, 2017, after performing 22,219 flying hours since it had entered service on February 1, 1973. The C-130H Hercules will be replaced by seven Airbus A400Ms from 2020 onwards.
Aircraft Depicted in this Set are as Follows:
CH-01 Aircraft SN 71-1797 active 25 Jul 1972- 17 Dec 2021