With over 100 aged MiG-21 fighters and local fighter plane still in development, Socialist Yugoslavia had to acquire some more modern jets for their sky.
F-16 Fighting Falcon, Mirage-2000 and MiG-29 were the top three contenders. Due to some political decisions and Soviet Union’s debt to Yugoslavia, JNA ( Yugoslav People’s Army ) received MiG-29s, local designation L-18 (L – Lovac/Fighter).
Yugoslavia was the first country in Europe with MiG-29s and third in the world with a total of 16 planes in their inventory.
In September of 1987, Yugoslavia took the delivery of their first two MiG-29UB jet fighters locally designated as NL-18 (Nastavni, Lovac/ Fighter Trainer). Now for the fun part…
As you can see in the video, Soviets pilots flying the jets from the Soviet Union to Yugoslavia were wearing suits and ties because there was no place for luggage and they had to return to the Soviet Union on an Aeroflot flight. This was certainly the most elegant solution.
