HA-LIX, serial number 184 33209, was built at the Tashkent plant in 1949, one of 296 LI-2s to roll-out of the Uzbek factory that year (1). The aircraft joined the Hungarian Air Force at Szekesfehervar on 9th April 1949 as the first of four Li-2Ts to be delivered from an eventual complement of nineteen aircraft (14 Li-2Ts, 5 Li-2P VIP airliners) (2). The ’84’ in the serial confirms that the Li-2T was assembled at tashkent, the main plant building the aircraft. The preceding ‘1’ may indicate that the aircraft was built prior to 1952, after which it would have been a ‘2’. The last three digits, ‘209’, were chosen by the Hungarians as an air force serial. This was confusing as another Li-2T, 234 41209, later joined the HAF and had the same last three numerals. Initially, the first four aircraft had been allocated the serials S101 to S104 but, although more distinctive, these identities were never adopted and the two LI-2s were, for many years, informally identified as 209#1 and 209#2.
(1) From ‘Lisunov Li-2, the Soviet DC-3’ by Yefim Gordon, Sergey & Dmitry Komissarov, Ian Allan.
(2) Air Britain’s ‘The First Seventy Years: DC-1/ DC-2/ DC-3’ by Jennifer Gradidge reports a delivery date of April 9th 1949 with the next three Li-2Ts delivered in September 1949. Other sources quote 17th September 1949 as the delivery date of ‘209’.
The initial spell of military service for HA-LIX/ 209 coincided with Hungary being absorbed into the USSR’s ComEcon bloc following the creation of the socialist Hungarian People’s Party in August 1949. Hungary’s armed forces were supplied with Russian hardware and the air force received Li-2s which were mostly used as general transports.
On the civil side, Soviet authorities had provided technical assistance to post- WW2 Hungarian aviation authorities when they established the state airline, Maszoviet, in October 1946. The organisation’s full name was ‘Hungarian Soviet Air Transport Society’ and it began internal services on October 15th 1946 with an Li-2 flight between Budapest’s Budaors Airport and Debrecen. The airline received eleven (3) Li-2Ps, six from the factory and five low-hour passenger examples from Romania’s TARS company. They were registered in two very appropriate sequences: HA-LIA to HA-LII and HA-LIK to HA-LIM. Following the death of Stalin in March 1953, the Hungarian government became slightly less repressive and permitted a certain level of criticism of their policy of total nationalisation. Although Maszoviet had expanded to include international services from summer 1957, it was not a particularly efficient operation and a couple of Li-2s had been written-off in accidents. The airline closed in 1954 and a new operation, MALEV Hungarian Airlines, was established in October of the same year with the earlier company’s remaining ten Li-2s. Meanwhile, dissent was growing within Hungary and, in October 1956, protesting students occupied the Parliament building in Budapest demanding free elections and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from their country. As the situation escalated, Soviet troops occupied Hungary during late October and early November 1956 and the ‘uprising’ was put down. In the aftermath, the Soviet Union demanded that Hungary’s military should be reduced in size and the Air Force fleet of 17 Li-2s was to be cut to just four. The balance of thirteen, which included 209, was to be transferred to Malev and given civil registrations.
(3) HA-LIM arrived in 1952 from the Hungarian Air Force.
(184 33) 209 had spent eight years flying with the 16th Independent Transport Company and, following the disbanding of this unit in 1957, the Li-2 was issued with a general maintenance certificate at Szekesfehervar and delivered to Malev, as HA-LIX, on March 24th 1957.
The state airline flew their Li-2 fleet on routes from Budapest to domestic destinations such as Debrecen, Miskolc, Nyregyhaza, Pecs, Szeged, Szombathely and Zalegerszeg until newer aircraft such as the IL-12 and IL-14 began to replace them. By 1962, almost the entire contingent of ex-Maszoviet Li-2s had been withdrawn from service or written-off and the three Li-2Ps received from the Air Force in 1957 were retired in the next eighteen months. Of the ten remaining Li-2Ts, two were passed on to the Hungarian Defence Association (who already had ex-Maszoviet/ Malev Li-2P HA-LIG), and one joined the State Mapping Agency. Four aircraft were donated for preservation (although none survived very long) and three were returned to the Air Force where they readopted their earlier military identities. HA-LIX regained the ‘209’ identity on 30th November 1964 and joined a number of other Li-2s based at Kekskemet Air Base with the 86th Helicopter Regiment. Their duties included general transport and parachute training work and ‘209’ became a regular visitor at Budaors airfield. A major overhaul on 209 was carried-out at the maintenance facility at Mineralnye in the USSR in 1968/ 69. In 1970/ 71, the 86th and 87th Helicopter Regiments moved to the Szentkiralyszabadja Air Base near Veszprem and the last four Li-2s moved with them. They were subsequently retired in 1974, HA-LIX/ 209 making her last working flight for the military on January 11th 1974. Flown to Szolnok, 209 was initially preserved at the Aviation Museum Foundation (5).
Quite a number of Li-2s demobbed by the Air Force had been assigned for preservation during the late sixties and early seventies but most had subsequently been scrapped or destroyed. By the late 1980s, the role of promoting historic aviation in Hungary had been taken-on by the Air Service division of the Ministry of Agriculture and Nutrition (MEM RSz). The organisation was based at Budaors, Budapest’s International Airport until 1950, which now served as a base for training, parachuting, gliding and recreational flying.
(5) It is uncertain what date this final flight took place, but the Szentkiralyszabadja Air Base was closed in 1990 owing to the political and military changes in Soviet-allied countries. 209 is recorded as being at Szolnok by 1992.
A group of pilots, engineers and enthusiasts had spotted the interest shown in historic aircraft across Europe and, in 1992, decided to create the Goldtimer Foundation with a key aim of restoring an Li-2. Karoly Hadju was the founder and became the President of Goldtimer with Laszlo Takacs as Secretary. The Foundation showed an early interest in the Polikarpov Po-2 HA-PAO which had been restored in 1984 and subsequently maintained by MEM RSz at Budaors. This state-run organisation also maintained various gliders and agricultural crop dusters and had experience of hangaring, maintaining and operating older aircraft such as the An-2. They occupied extensive workshop and hangar facilities at Budaors. When MEM were wound-up in 1989, the Po-2 and the historic R-18 Kanya passed into the control of the Hungarian Museum of Transportation, an organisation with other specialisms. Consequently, Goldtimer were able to negotiate the loan of the two aircraft providing that they maintained and operated them for historic purposes. The Transport Museum also seemed to be an ideal partner for Goldtimer’s ambition to restore an Li-2 to airworthiness. The Museum had been allocated HA-LIX’s ex-Malev and Helicopter Regiment sister HA-LIQ/ 206 which had also been withdrawn from use in 1974. Stored at Budaors until 1980, 206 had been moved to the Flying Instructor base at the grass airstrip of Farashegy and was sitting forlornly in a landscape of weeds.Goldtimer inspected ‘LIQ and soon noticed that the move to Farashegy had been executed rather brutally and that the Li-2 had subsequently been ransacked by souvenir-hunters. It was not a suitable candidate for restoring to airworthiness.
Goldtimer’s team went on to briefly consider acquiring a C-47/ DC-3 instead of an Li-2 but two prospective candidates, one in Istanbul, one in Austria, also proved too neglected. Attention therefore turned to Li-2 209/ HA-LIX which was parked at the Szolnok Aviation Museum. Goldtimer’s proposal to cooperate with the Aviation Museum to restore the Li-2 to the air was greeted favourably and, with the laissez-faire attitude prevalent at the end of the communist era, a memorandum of agreement was drafted with minimum bureaucratic intervention and duly signed in 1996. The old airliner was dismantled and transferred to Budaors by night-time convoys during July 1996 (6).
(6) Dates from the Goldtimer site.
Once the components of the Li-2 had been gathered in the Air Service (MEM RSz) hangar at Budaors, a technical appraisal could begin. Fortunately, Malev’s technical documentation had been retained with the aircraft when it was retired in 1974. Work commenced on stripping-off the Hungarian Air Force green camouflage, a job which proved to be exceptionally time-consuming. Around 500 litres of paint stripper were used over a two-year time span to return the airframe to Malev’s natural metal finish. Along the way, the old HA-LIX registration emerged from beneath the military paint confirming that this ‘209’ was, indeed, 184 33209. Malev assisted technically and, to some extent, financially and MEM initially provided mechanical help. Following the closure of MEM, the aircraft was able, fortunately, to remain in the hangar and new technical partners arrived with Primex and Repzer Kft supported by Aerometal Kft, Aeroplex and Danube Aircraft. Further Li-2 spares were supplied by MHS at Budaors and Malev donated navaid and radio equipment from Tu-154 HA-LCR, an airliner which had been written-off following an incident at Thessaloniki in July 2000.
By October 2000, metal work, hydraulics and fuel systems had been completed and the control surfaces, engines and undercarriage were ready for reassembly. Goldtimer had called upon many old colleagues during the restoration and ex- aircraft engineer-turned-entrepreneur Csaba Kornyik had been generous enough to donate two reconditioned ASH 62IR engines to the project. By 2001, however, financial support was wearing thin with Malev unable to underwrite the project. Fortunately, a travel agency and aviation company owned by an ex-Malev manager was able to come to their assistance. Sunflower was part-owned by Tensi Aviation, a Hungarian general sales agency, and a financial group. They offered financial input and, in return, it was decided to paint the Li-2 in their colour scheme. Instead of the planned green/ white/ gold colours, the Li-2 would be painted with a vibrant red cheat line, red and blue nacelles, Sunflower titles and the Company’s motif on the tail fin along with the Hungarian flag. This was still in the future however as, during late 2000 and 2001, the main work involved installation of the electrics and avionics by Sec Air Kft. Renovated passenger seats from a Tupolov jet were supplied and fitted while the redundant radio racks were removed and galley equipment installed. Finally, in July 2021, the outer wings were refitted and the Li-2 was ready for its first flight since 1974. The bare metal scheme had the HA-LIX registration and a Hungarian tail flag added ahead of the inaugural flight on September 21st 2001. Pal Kovacs was at the controls and veteran Malev pilot Peter Krauth was co-pilot for a two hour flight departing Budaors and heading south-west to land at the Siofok-Kiliti airfield alongside Lake Balaton. A programme of six landings was undertaken successfully and, upon return to Budaors, the main issue to be addressed was a leaky hydraulic seal in one oleo. By October 2001, a second series of test flights was being planned along with the repaint at Malev’s Ferenc Liszt Airport facilty.
The passenger cabin was up-rated to 21st Century requirements with 21 seats in a 2+1 configuration. Modern quilted soundproofing and carpeting give passengers a comfortable flying experience – far removed from the original military specification! By the Summer of 2002, the Li-2 was traveling around Hungary in the Sunflower scheme and visited the Taszar Air Base in the south-west part of the country in August. On September 1st, HA-LIX appeared in the Czech Republic at the annual Hradec Kralove air display at the air base to the east of Prague. Demonstrating the conformance of the airliner’s modern navaids and avionics to European air traffic control systems, a visit was made to the Hamburg Air Show in September 2003. Peter Krauth was the Captain, George Hubbes Co-pilot, Gyorgy Bobak (Goldtimer’s technical chief) flew along as Flight Engineer and Goldtimer’s founder Karoly Hadju completed the party.
HA-LIX’s post-restoration schedule.
Note: the air show appearances noted below are representative of the Li-2’s popularity throughout Europe. As one of the World’s more photographed aircraft, there is always a good record of visits to foreign fields and many of the dates and places given below are taken from photos posted on the www.jetphotos.com site.
In November 2003, the Li-2 was involved in film work, an avenue which would be explored more thoroughly in the future. The Sunflower cheat line was retained for the movie, but the titles and logo removed in favour of a red Soviet star. On December 17th, the Li-2 had regained its titling to take part in a 100-aircraft display in Hungary commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers first flight in 1903.
May 1st 2004 saw HA-LIX show-cased again during a celebration of Hungary’s accession to the European Union: the Li-2 flew along the Danube, passing over the spectacular Parliament buildings in Budapest and lowering the undercarriage upon passing over the historic Elizabeth chain bridge. Appropriately, the tail fin Sunflower motif had not been repainted yet and pride-of-place went to the Hungarian tricolour on the rudder. May 1st would continue to be a regular display date for HA-LIX as part of the International Labour Day celebrations with the Li-2 featuring prominently in photo shoots in 2014, 2015 and 2018. Another regular commitment in the skies over Budapest is the annual Hungarian National Day on August 20th when the 1000+ years of Magyar history are celebrated.The Annual Feast Day, which commemorates the canonisation of King St.Stephen in 1083, is very important in the Hungarian calendar and, naturally, the Li-2 is expected to cruise along the Danube above Budapest!
2004 also saw the Li-2 visiting neighbouring Central European countries with a flight to Berlin Schonefeld for the Berlin Air Show on May 15th and visits to Vienna on June 5th and 6th. The Schonefeld show would become a regular late Spring fixture with HA-LIX pictured in Berlin on May 31st 2008, June 11th and 12th 2010, later in the 2012 season on September 16th, May 24th 2014 and June 4th 2016. Another early summer day-out for the Li-2 in Hungary has been the grass light aviation/ glider field at Dunakeszi to the north of Budapest. The display on June 6th 2005 at Dunakeszi saw the Li-2 flying in close formation with an Extra EA300S aerobatic aircraft. Further visits on June 10th 2018, June 24th 2021 and June 12th 2022 have all been well-documented by local photographers. The Dunakeszi strip is also visited sometimes on a fly-by during HA-LIX’s regular summer passenger flights from Budaors. Later into the summer season, the Kekskemet Air Display has been a regular Hungarian destination for the Goldtimer aircraft. HA-LIX was pictured there on August 11th 2007 and again at the two day event on August 15th to 17th 2008. The latter proved to be one of the biggest and most successful European air shows of the season. The similarly well-received displays of August 7th/ 8th 2010 and August 2nd 2013 also involved the Li-2 and it was back on the last weekend of August 2021 when the show reconvened after an eight-year break.
HA-LIX retained the Sunflower colours for several years although, in November 2004, the red cheat line forward of the registration was painted in ‘Malev blue’ to celebrate the national airline’s 50th anniversary. The paintwork on the silver fin was tidied-up at the same time and the Sunflower titles removed. However, after the winter break, the Li-2 emerged in April 2005 with the Sunflower titles back in situ but the Malev blue cheat line retained. By the latter part of the season, the Li-2 was appearing at Salzburg on September 24th/ 25th wearing the full red cheat line and Sunflower titles. A visit was made to Lelystad on May 26th/ 27th 2006 for the display at the Aviodrome, currently home to examples of the Lisunov’s American cousins the DC-2, C-47 and C-54.
The Li-2 was treated to partial colour schemes in 2006 to promote historic achievements: Malev titles were noted at the September 2nd appearance at Kosice-Barca in Slovakia and, more surprisingly, Aeroflot titles were applied during a November 21st visit to Vienna Schwechat. The Russian airline’s name was added using a sticker and it celebrated 50 years of Aeroflot flights into Vienna. By the time the Li-2 had emerged from its next winter hibernation, it was wearing full Sunflower titles at Friedrichshafen, Germany, on April 20th 2007. It then spent the next 15 months flying in the same scheme at a variety of home and European events: the Memorial Air Show at Roudnice in the Czech Republic on June 23rd 2007, Krakow on July 1st 2007 and June 28th/ 29th 2008, the Hamburg Air Show September 15th/ 16th 2007, Prague on April 25th / 26th 2008, Godollo in Hungary the following week, May 2nd 2008 and at Piestany, Slovakia, on June 14th 2008. The Krakow appearances were at the Air Museum Air Show at the old Rakowice-Czyzyny Airport where HA-LIX would have overflown the resident preserved Polish military Li-2. Flights were also made from Krakow’s John Paul II Airport as well as the Krakow Flying Club’s Pobiednik air strip.
During early August 2008, HA-LIX was repainted in full Malev colours by Aeroplex of Central Europe at Budapest’s Ferenc Liszt Airport and the Li-2 appeared resplendent in the new scheme on August 10th at Siofok Kiliti, Hungary. Appearances for the rest of Summer 2008 included Dubnica, Slovakia, on August 30th at Stuttgart, germany, on September 10th. 2009 continued in much the same vein with a June 13th/ 14th appearance at Hradec Kralove air base in the Czech Republic followed by summer events to mark HA-LIX’s 60th anniversary in August. The Li-2 was joined by C-47 F-AZTE for celebratory flights from Budaors on August 16th and further joint operations during the Hungarian Red Bull air display. In 2009 the air display started on 19th and coincided with the National Day on August 20th. Red Bull brought their own C-47 from Austria, the ex-Breitling round-the-world traveller HB-IRJ. Both HA-LIX and F-AZTE made the short hop from Budaors to the ex-military base of Tokol where the Red Bull air race was mobilising. Interestingly, the French C-47 had a split personality and was painted in Air France colours as F-BBBE on one side and KLM’s ‘The Flying Dutchman’ F-AZTE on the opposing side.
At the end of the 2009 display season, HA-LIX appeared at Hahnweide, Germany, on September 4th to 6th, making one of its trademark low passes. Re-emerging in Spring 2010, HA-LIX made a series of appearances during May. On 8th, the Li-2 visited Budapest’s Ferenc Liszt Airport to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the airport’s opening. Indeed, the first commercial flight at Ferenc Liszt had been made by an Li-2. Another airfield which had been on early domestic Li-2 schedules was Debrecen, to the east of Budapest. In Spring 2010, the local council were attempting to renovate the airport and, on May 22nd, HA-LIX landed at Debrecen and parked on the rather rough looking tarmac apron. A couple of years later, the airport hosted passenger flights operated by Wizzair.
HA-LIX also appeared with some historic companions at Piestany in Slovakia on May 29th before slotting into regular commitments at Schonefeld during June, a flypast of the Hungaroring motor racing track during July and the Kecskemet air display in August. At the end of October 2010, HA-LIX’s familiar tail fin colours were briefly changed from the Hungarian tricolour to the red/ white/ blue of the Netherlands for an appearance at Ferenc Liszt Airport to highlight the scheduling of KLM flights to the Budapest airport. The Li-2 received a fire engine water cannon welcome.
The 2011 display season included another visit to Hahnweide, Germany, in September and a low pass appearance at the Borgond (Hungary) Aeroplane Day on September 11th. 2012 included a couple of visits to Slovakia including Dubnica on June 9th and Sliac on September 1st/ 2nd. The following week, a return was made to Borgond for the weekend of 9th-11th and the Li-2 made a low pass along the grass airstrip followed by formation flying with a Delphin jet.
The 2014 display season was also very successful with the popular May 1st flight over Parliament on International Workers Day, May 1st. Later the same month, the Li-2 was back at Schonefeld, Berlin, and July 4th saw the airliner making a trademark low pass at the Salzburg display. On August 30th, it was time for a revisit to the Sliac Air Force display in Slovakia and on September 14th, the Li-2 was welcomed back to Borgond before heading on to Nove Zamky in Slovakia the following week. This grass airstrip in southern Slovakia welcomed HA-LIX back on July 2nd 2016 a week after the airliner had carried-out a ‘Longest Day’ night flight around the museums of Budapest.
In 2017, many of the regular commitments were supplemented by visits to Munich on May 19th and Prague on June 10th. The Borgond and Szeged displays in Hungary were visited on September 10th and 16th respectively.
Shortly after flying in to the June 10th meeting at the grass airstrip at Dunakeszi, Hungary, HA-LIX traveled to Czestochowa Rudnika in Poland at the end of July. The Li-2 was due to appear in the WW2 movie ‘Kurier’ as an RAF Dakota and was painted appropriately in the colours of 267 ‘Pegasus’ Squadron. The photos below show that the paint scheme was very accurate – although only temporary, the Li-2 was back in Malev colours by August 8th.
The end of the 2018 season saw HA-LIX back at Ferenc Liszt Airport , this time for a ‘Tu-154 festival’ on October 27th. Prior to the opening of the Airport’s new terminal 2B, the Aeropark museum’s Tu-154 had been ‘borrowed’ to afford ground handling practice. The old tri-jet had been repainted in the Lufthansa Technik hangars at the airport and looked good in the original Malev colours. HA-LIX, also in traditional Malev blue, put in an appearance, perhaps returning a favour as the Li-2’s seats and avionics had been donated by a Tu-154. To complete the nostalgia, passengers experiencing the Li-2 flights from Ferenc Liszt Airport are often transported to the airliner steps in a historic Malev-liveried Ikarus 55 bus.
May and June 2019 proved eventful for the HA-LIX team with them flying west to the UK and France to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Arriving at Duxford on June 2nd 2019, the Li-2’s previous parachute operations made it an attractive choice for the scheduled drops at Duxford and over Normandy. Unfortunately, poor weather in England precluded the parachuting over Cambridgeshire, but the Li-2 took part in flights to Normandy on June 5th and 6th and later took part in the jump at Lessay on June 9th. The appearance at the D-Day event introduced HA-LIX to a new, and highly appreciative, audience many of whom had never seen an Li-2.
After departing Normandy, HA-LIX traveled with most of the rest of the D-Day Squadron to the Wiesbaden Air Base where another highly successful air display was completed. The events in Germany were designed to commemorate the Berlin Air Lift and HA-LIX stayed at Wiesbaden on June 10th, 11th and 12th. It took part in another parachute drop but didn’t partake in the mass flyover of Berlin on June 16th. Returning to Budaors, the Li-2 was rested prior to heading for a reprise of 2015’s visit to the grass strip at Roudnice, Czechia on June 22nd 2019. By September, HA-LIX was back to the regular flying at Budaors with occasional formation flights with the airfield’s resident An-2s. The big air show at Szeged on September 13th and 14th saw the Li-2 back on display. The winter break saw the rise of Covid and a very quiet 2020. The Li-2 re-emerged flying from Budaors in Spring 2021 and repeated its Dunakeszi appearance on July 24th 2021 as well as the revived Szeged air display in September.
Since then, HA-LIX continues to visit new and past destinations including the Antidotum Air Show at Leszno in Poland in 2022, Zurich in 2023 and Bucharest in 2024. The immaculate appearance of the old airliner and the creative flying by her experienced pilots ensure a warm welcome wherever HA-LIX travels and the Li-2 must be one of Europe’s most photographed aircraft!
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