In Britain the historic Harvard aircraft to fly again in the Greek skies – See photo

The creation of a Greek trio of rare world-class aircraft in flight is proceeding at an intensive pace. As Dimitrios Kolias, vice president and legal representative of the “IKAROS” Public Benefit Foundation, announced while speaking to APE BPE, today the second historic aircraft departed for Biggin Hill airport in the United Kingdom. Harvard which is reconstructed and returned to flight condition by the Hellenic Air Force Foundation.

“Thanks to the excellent cooperation with the PA of the country once again, we have succeeded and we have the beginning of the second attempt to find again in the skies a historic aircraft that served in the Greek Air Force”, said Mr. Kolias conveying the important development for the project which was celebrated at the airport of Tatoi.

The historic aircraft disassembled by qualified English engineers who arrived in Greece for this purpose, and completed under the supervision of engineers of the “IKAROS” Foundation. the necessary work within a week. The result of the effort was today, Friday, June 17, to complete the delivery and receipt of Harvard by the people of the PA and the Foundation, with Mr. Kolias signing the final arrangements.

The departure is made from Greece by special transport vehicle and Harvard is expected to arrive by road in ten days in the United Kingdom “where it will be rebuilt with full attention to detail so that it is ready within 12 to 18 months from today”, as he explained the vice-president and legal representative of the public benefit Foundation “IKAROS”.

“The goal is to do our best so that the reconstruction of these aircraft can proceed, let us proceed to the new actions after the performance of the Greek Spitfire MJ75 which now flies in the sky of Greece, with Greek pilots in fact. Harvard was committed to seeking to bring it back into flight. “Thanks to the coordinated actions taken by all those involved, today the aircraft is now ‘leaving’ for the United Kingdom, where special technicians, as was done with the Spitfire, will undertake its reconstruction and return to flight condition”, explained Mr. Kolias.

The vice president of “IKAROS” stressed that the departure of the former training aircraft of the Greek PA is an important development for all the museum planes of Greece. “This particular aircraft also had an educational role, so it is doubly important for the whole project, since its use can be educational for the current pilots of our historic aircraft in general”, added Mr. Kolias.

The reconstruction of Harvard proceeded after the selection of a specific aircraft. “For a long time we had agreed to proceed immediately with the full restoration and return to flight condition of one of the three Harvards that the Greek PA has at the Dhekelia air base”, noted Mr. Kolias who did not hide the enthusiasm of the IKAROS Foundation »For the correct choice of the specific aircraft.

As part of the overall reconnaissance planning of historic aircraft in 2022 and 2023, the next aircraft to be re-launched after Harvard is the Dakota 49-2622 “Poseidon” located in Thessaloniki. The transport of Greece with the decades of history will not even be transported to the United Kingdom but will try to return to a flying state within the country so that the Greek Air Force “will soon have three legendary aircraft in flying state”, commented Mr. Kolias.

These aircraft “are an advertisement for a country and it is customary to fly around the world called Heritage Flights (s.s. Heritage Flights) in order to honor the Air Force from which they come”, stressed the vice president of “IKAROS”.