World’s Last A-7 Corsair II attack aircraft retired from active service in Greece

The Hellenic Air Force (HAF) has retired the A-7 Corsair II from active service with a ceremony at Araxos airbase.

On Oct. 17, the Hellenic Air Force organized a ceremony to celebrate the retirement of the last A-7 Corsair flying with 116 Combat Wing (116 PM) jets at Araxos airbase after 39 years of active service.

A-7 line up nose

The event included static displays of A-7 and F-16 aircraft, a photography exhibition, flights and aircraft transits and demonstrations by the Air Demonstration Teams “Zeus” with an F-16 and “Daedalus” with a T-6A aircraft.

A-7 line up

Along with the last A-7s aircraft in the typical exotic camouflaged color scheme, a retired Corsair in a celebratory livery was unveiled during the ceremony at Araxos airbase.

A-7 last special color

As a consequence of the retirement of the last A-7 light attack planes, the HAF operates now 157 F-16s, 44 Mirage 2000 and 45 R/F-4Es.

TA-7 takeoff

During the Araxos spotters day, there was the opportunity to observe the local F-16s involved in their usual training activity.

F-16 HAF landing

Photographer Daniele Faccioli attended the event at Araxos and took the images in this post.

TA-7 old livery

 H/T e-Amyna for providing additional information used in this article. Image credit: Daniele Faccioli

 

About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.