Amir Nachumi
Amir Nachumi | |
|---|---|
| Awards | Medal of Distinguished Service |
| Other work | President and CEO of TIL Defense Systems CEO of Triphase Technologies Ltd. Manager of GlassCeraX |
Amir Nachumi (
Military service
Born in
Following the losses suffered in the war and the subsequent expansion of the IAF, Nachumi was allowed to re-enlist with the IAF flight school. On November 21, 1968, he completed flight course 57 and began flying Dassault Ouragans with 113 Squadron out of Hatzor. Nachumi flew 50 combat missions on the Ouragan during the War of Attrition and later returned to the IAF flight school as an instructor. In 1971 he converted to the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, which he flew with 107 Squadron.[1][2]
Yom Kippur War
In early October 1973 Nachumi was among two F-4 Phantom crews on quick reaction alert duty at
The two Phantom crews (Nachumi/Yossi Yavin and Daniel Shaki/David Regev) were sitting in their aircraft when war broke out at 14:00, spearheaded by an Egyptian aerial strike against Israeli positions in the Sinai. Radar had detected Egyptian Air Force formations heading for Ofir but the two aircraft were not scrambled yet. Despite orders to the contrary, Nachumi scrambled the two jets himself:
I decided to take off - the controller was screaming that there were orders not to take off. However, I decided that the orders were 400 kilometers away and they didn't know what was going on. I cranked the engine and told my number two to do the same and to scramble as quickly as possible. Standby is very close to the runway so we cranked the engines, went to the runway, and took off. I looked back to see that number two was airborne and that everything was ok, and I saw smoke plumes on the runway, like cotton balls. And I didn't understand. I told my navigator, "Look! What do you make of this?" He said, "They are bombing the runway, this must be war!"[5]
28 EAF
By the war's end Nachumi had also become the IAF's top F-4 Phantom ace, with 7 confirmed kills. He scored his fifth kill on October 13 when 107 squadron struck the Syrian air base at
Opera and Lebanon
Seven years after joining the squadron, in June 1978 Nachumi was promoted to 107 squadron leader. Two years later he was selected to lead 110 Squadron, the IAF's second F-16 Fighting Falcon squadron, which formally opened at Ramat David on September 28, 1980.[1][7]
On June 7, 1981, the Israeli Air Force carried out
Over the course of the 1982 Lebanon War, 110 Squadron was credited with 23 aerial kills, including 6 fighters shot down by Nachumi himself, all using the AIM-9L. Three of the kills were scored on the same sortie:
I was on a
MiG-23 and then we started to pursue the other MiGs and to manoeuvre with them. I was behind a MiG when my wingman yelled 'One, let me have him, let me have him', and I did the unthinkable – I said 'Have him'. I pulled out and let the wingman have him but he did not shoot him down. He got sandwiched between two MiGs, and instead of coming in after the trailing MiG, he came in after the leading MiG. I ordered him to break, I came in and I shot down the two of them.[1]
Later service
Now a 14-kills ace, Nachumi completed his tenure at 110 squadron in April 1983 and transferred to the IAF's
Amir Nachumi took his last flight on the F-16 on June 26, 1995, flying 110 squadron's F-16C '329'.[1] He retired from the IDF in 1996 but continued to fly with the IAF as a volunteer instructor at the flight academy until April 2005 when forced to retire by new IAF regulations limiting pilot age.[3]
Civilian career
After leaving the military Nachumi was president and CEO of TIL Defense Systems.[1] He was later CEO of Triphase Technologies Ltd., an investment company, and then manager of GlassCeraX, a company dealing with extreme performance material. Besides his chemistry degree from the Hebrew University, he also holds an MBA from Tel Aviv University.[10]
He is married to Naomi and a father of three.[3]
See also
External links
- Frenkel, Aviv (December 14, 2010). "Ofira Air Battle Footage". Channel 10 News (in Hebrew). Archived from the original on July 27, 2011. Retrieved December 15, 2010.
References
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d e f g Aloni (2001)
- ^ a b c "Eagle Biography – Amir Nachumi". Air University. 1999. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
- ^ a b c Issakson, Shlomo; Gutman, Noam (June 30, 2005). "Aluf (res.) Gil Regev and Tat-Aluf (res.) Amir Nachumi Retire from Flight" (in Hebrew). Israeli Air Force Magazine. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
- ^ a b c d e Aloni (2004), Phantom Aces, pp. 24-26
- ^ a b Nordeen (1990), pp. 119-121
- ^ Nordeen (1990), pp. 135-137
- ^ a b Norton (2004), pp. 329, 332
- ^ Ben-Ami, Tzahi. "Operation Opera" (PDF) (in Hebrew). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 23, 2011. Retrieved August 28, 2010.
- ^ Spector (2005), pp. 152, 166
- ^ "GlassCeraX – About Us". 2005. Retrieved August 28, 2010.
Bibliography
- Aloni, Shlomo (September 4, 2001). "Israeli Ace". Air Forces Monthly (161). Key Publishing.
- Aloni, Shlomo (2004). Israeli Phantom II Aces. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-84176-783-2.
- Nordeen, Lon (1990). Fighters Over Israel. New York: Orion Books. ISBN 0-517-56603-6.
- Norton, Bill (2004). Air War on the Edge – A History of the Israel Air Force and its Aircraft since 1947. ISBN 1-85780-088-5.
- Spector, Stephen (2005). Operation Solomon: the daring rescue of the Ethiopian Jews. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-517782-4.
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