Aviation photographer Suresh A. Atapattu generously identified the SLAF museum’s out door aircraft exhibits seen in the Google Earth screen grab below. He also went through the trouble of re-numbering the aircraft in the image. His numbers in yellow correspond to the table below. This image was originally used in my post about the Sri Lanka Air Force Museum at Ratmalana.
I am quite grateful to Suresh for taking the time to prepare and send me this info. You should check out his website (his space shuttle photos are monumental) as well as his work on airliners.net.
Update 24th Nov. 2010:
Close up images of the aircraft in the picture below are on airliners.net
| type | acquired | In service | ||
| 1 | Harbin Y-12 | circa. 1986 | yes | |
| 2 | Harbin Y-12 | circa. 1987 | yes | |
| 3 | Nanchang CJ-6 | circa. 2001 | no | |
| 4 | An-32B | circa. 1995 | no | |
| 5 | Harbin Y-12 | circa. 1987 | yes | |
| 6 | Harbin Y-12 | circa. 1986 | yes | |
| 7 | Harbin Y-12 | circa. 1987 | yes | |
| 8 | Chengdu FT-5 | circa. 1990 | flyable storage | |
| 9 | Chipmunk Mk.5 | Circa. 1950 | flyable storage | |
| 10 | Chengdu FT-5 | circa. 1990 | flyable storage | |
| 11 | IAI- Pucura | Circa.1994 | no | |
| 12 | Cessna 337 /O-2 Birddog | Circa. 1971 | no | |
| 13 | BAC Jet Provost Mk.51 | Circa.1955 | no | |
| 14 | Douglas DC-3 | Circa. 1947 | no | ec-Air Ceylon |
| 15 | deHavilland Dove | circa.1953 | no | |
| 16 | MiG 15 UTI | circa.1971 | no | |
| 17 | Kamov KA-26 | circa.1971 | no | |
| 18 | Chipmunk Mk.5 | Circa. 1950 | no | |
| 19 | SIAI-Marchetti SF.260TP | circa.1985 | no | |
| 20 | Mig-17F | circa.1971 | no | |
| 21 | Beachcraft 18 | circa. 1955 | no | |
| 22 | BAC Jet Provost Mk.51 | Circa.1955 | no | |
| 23 | Mig-17F | circa.1971 | no | |
| 24 | Aerospatiale SA-365C Dauphin 2 | circa.1973 | no | |
| 25 | BAE HS. 748 | circa. 1985 | no | |
| 26 | BAC Jet Provost Mk.51 | Circa.1955 | no | |
| 27 | Boulton Paul Balliol | circa. 1953 | no | |
| 28 | deHavilland Dove | circa.1953 | no | |
| 29 | Riley Heron | circa.1955 | no | |
| 30 | CJ-6/SF.260/AN-32B wreckage | |||
| 31 | Mi -24/35 | circa.1995 | ||
| 32 | SIAI-Marchetti SF.260TP | circa.1985 | no | |
| 33 | SIAI-Marchetti SF.260TP | circa.1985 | no | |
| 34 | SIAI-Marchetti SF.260W | circa.1985 | no | |
| 35 | Riley Heron | circa.1955 | no | |
| 36 | deHavilland Dove | circa.1953 | no | |
| 37 | deHavilland Dove | circa.1953 | no | |
| 38 | Bell 47G | circa.1971 | no | |
| 39 | Zlin 143 | shotdown 2009 | ||
| 40 | Harbin Y-12 | circa. 1986 | yes |
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I had no idea that the LTTE aircraft was on display at the museum. I think Mr. Atapattu deserves a major Thank you for identifying all those aircraft. 😀
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Very grateful to him for the info. I’ll link to ground level pics of the exhibits when and if I find them 🙂 If you spot any don’t hesitate to fine a URL over here 😀
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To me, all 40 odd aircrafts looks the same in the google earth image 🙂
Dunno how on earth he identifies all of them!!
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Well he is an aviation photographer 🙂 Plus he’s been to the place (all the SLAF museum photos on airliners.net are by him ).
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Thanks to both of you. My dad says he flew one of the Air Ceylon DC-3’s when he was a young lad. We will try to visit the museum if we get a chance, next month.
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You are very welcome 🙂 Happy you liked the post. I hope you put up a post about your visit when you get around to it. It could be an interesting memory walk for your farther.
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