Romania's Hong 5 Is No Ilyushin

Making its first, and probably last, appearance at an international European air show, the unfamiliar shape of the Romanian air force's Hong 5 twin-turbojet bomber at Le Bourget is a reminder of the Cold War, when similar aircraft would have been part of the Warsaw Pact's tactical nuclear and conventional strike forces.

If it looks remarkably like the Ilyushin Il-28 "Beagle," it is because it is literally a Chinese copy. Having received about 500 Il-28s from production by the Soviet GAZ factories beginning around 1950, in the early 1960s the Chinese air force (AF/PLA) tasked the Harbin Aircraft Factory with their local production.

In one of several periods of strained relations between China and the USSR, Harbin had access to only about 60% of available drawings from its Il-28 overhaul work. While reverse-engineering the remainder, Harbin introduced several major modifications and some improvements to the mainplanes and tail assembly. Other changes included new Chinese surveillance/mapping radar and IFF. Powerplants remained two 6,000-pounds-thrust VK-1 Nene-derived centrifugal turbojets, known in China as the WP5A.

H-5 flight development started in China in September 1966, and initial production included versions modified for nuclear weapons delivery. Harbin eventually exported several hundred H-5s, although Albania and Romania were believed to be the only recipients in Europe.

The Romanian aircraft have been operated since 1958 by Escadrila 38 Aviatie Cercetare (38 Search Aviation Squadron), later redesignated Escadrila 38 Reconuastere (38 Reconnaissance Squadron) from Air Base 86 at Borcea-Fetesti. Most have now been withdrawn, leaving only two H-5s currently in service, equipped with vertical camera in bomb-bay and oblique camera in the port side of the rear fuselage, plus ventral mapping radar. A third H-5 has been undergoing a major overhaul with Aerostar at Bacau, for continued service, planned until about 2003.