Uploaded November 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago

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During the 1956 Suez Crisis, British recon airplanes from Cyprus were regularly overflying Syria and Iraq, looking for a large number of MiG fighters that had supposedly been delivered by the USSR. Syria had no MiGs at the time but they had twelve Gloster Meteors purchased from Britain a few years earlier. The country had no early warning radars either but an Egyptian pilot instructor and a Syrian army officer came up with a plan to intercept British Canberra reconnaissance aircraft. A future president of Syria also participated in what would become the last RAF airplane shootdown by an enemy fighter.

Main source:
- Tom Cooper and David Nicolle - Wings Over Sinai: The Egyptian Air Force During The Sinai War, 1956

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Mystery Bazaar by Kevin MacLeod
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#militaryaviation #militaryaviationhistory #royalairforce