Uzbekistan is a wonderful country with friendly people and a rich heritage. The number of preserved aircraft was minimal, but recently several new parks have been landscaped holding various exhibits. Let us explore!

Of course the capital Tashkent has a MiG-17 "01" red. It sits on a pedestal in the suburb Aviagorodok just West of the old Tuzel airfield.

Tuzel itself is being developed into a business airport. Work progresses slowly and former military aircraft as well as airframes from the Ilyushin plant are derelict here.

Close-up of the Su-17UM-3 "61" yellow that heads the row of 18 Su-17s.

Two An-12s borts "09" red and "10" red, still painted in Air Force blue, are in this yard too.

Tashkent has an impressive museum commemorating WWII, called G'alaba bog'i (Victory park.) It has some aircraft mock-ups and two real ones, like this civilian Li-2 painted in period colours. The other real deal is a Yak-50 (822206) posing as a Lavochkin La-5.

After Tashkent we went South to Jizzax. Most towns have elaborate ornaments at the city limits. The Tandoor is used exstensively for making delicious streetfood, this is a mobile example.

Jizzax used to house the Air Force Academy that is now in Qarshi. But the preserved aircraft, like this L-39C (834343), have moved to a park adhjacent to the former AFA barracks.

The Orda park has four aircraft in total. Displayed next to the L-39C is this Mi-24R (3532014511134).

Price exhibit in our view is this Su-24 (2315332) formerly bort 32.

We chose a toad's eye perspective for this Mi-8Tv (9775243).

Next stop, Samarkand, beautiful Samarkand! Plentiful food, awesome medieval Islamic buildings like the Registan. Rich history being on the Silk road, so a must visit.

And yes, we found some aircraft here too. These were part of a collection inside a military cantonment. Quirky L-39C and MiG-21R, both nailed shut and anonymous.

Their Mi-8 has been in residence the longest.

Our road trip took us further South to Qarshi. In Uzbekistan modern cars and old ones can be seen simultaneously, with every car being used for every possible task...

Qarshi has a nicely laid out patriot park, or Vatanparvarlar bog'i. Unfortunately, the most interesting aircraft, this Su-27 is obscured by trees. Also like all other aircraft present, it has a bogus bort "27" yellow. It used to be bort "32" (36911034205.)

The same applies to the Mi-8Tv "08" (9775345) and Mi-24T "24" (20948), Mi-24T is the local designation for Mi-24P.

This Su-17M-3 "17" red (54306), is adorned with sharkteeth.

Luckily, there was a Su-24 too, "24" yellow. We could not make out its construction number. Its former bort was "40" though and with two digits visible, the construction number likely ends in 15340. Only the batch number remains to be identified.

Let us end our overview with some colour. This former Uzbekistan airways Yak-40 is anonymous but looking smart.

We saw only part of this enigmatic country, the North was much more mountainous, reason enough to return.