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Plovdiv Museum of Aviation

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Museum of Aviation - Plovdiv

History of the Bulgarian aviation

As early as 1892, Bulgarians were watching the flight of the balloon "La France" over the town of Plovdiv and they saw how useful the balloon could be for the military. Army Lieutenant Vasil Zlatarov became the first Bulgarian aviator. Appointed as commander of the newly formed Aviation detachment, there was no balloon, and Zlatarov finally bought materials from Russia. Commander Zlatarov and his subordinates made the first Bulgarian balloon - "Sofia-1" and trained the first aviators.

In 1910 Bulgaria invited the Russian aircraft builder and pilot, Boris Maslenikov. He brought a replica of the French Farman IV and from the hippodrome in Sofia he made demonstrations, with Zlatarov also in the plane. It was decided to purchase planes for the Aviation detachment from France, Germany, Russia and others. Bulgarians were sent in some foreign schools to be trained as pilots and mechanics.

In 1912, Vasil Zlatarov, by now a Bulgarian Aviation Corps Major, was flying as observer on reconnaissance and leaflet-dropping missions in a craft from French manufacturer Louis Blériot, the XI-2 Artillerie. The plane's pilot was Italian Giovanni Sabelli.

Beginning in the 1914 Balkan Wars, Bulgaria was one of the world's first air forces to wear identification markings. These consisted of the Bulgarian national colours (from top) of White, Green and Red on the tail surfaces, with the outer portions of wing undersurfaces painted Red one side, Green the other, in a similar fashion to WWI Italian aircraft.

With the entry of Bulgaria into World War One on 6 October 1915, markings similar to the other Central Powers of Austria-Hungary and Germany were adopted. A narrow Green recognition stripe running along the trailing edge of the aircraft's wing was all that distinguished it as a Bulgarian machine.