A Polikarpov R-1 (licence-built D.H.9A) of the Afghan Air Force in June 1925, bearing the flag of Prince Amanullah Khan’s Emirate.

Группа советских летчиков и командующий афганской авиацией Эхсах-хан у биплана Р-1
A group of Soviet pilots pose with the Commander of the Afghan Air Force Ehsah Khan (fifth from left) beside an R-1 at the airfield at Sherpur, near Kabul, in the mid-1920s. The R-1 is widely regarded to be Soviet Russia’s first mass-produced aircraft, with more than 2,400 examples built at the Dux factory in Moscow during 1922-32.

Soviet air- and groundcrew beside an Afghan Air Force R-1, two members of the group holding general-purpose bombs. The effect on tribesmen in the more remote areas of Afghanistan of such new weapons delivered by means of air power was profound, and gave the Emir a clear advantage in projecting almost God-like power.

During September-October 1930 a flight of three Polikarpov R-5 biplanes made a long-distance flight from Moscow to Afghanistan via Crimea, Turkey and Iran, with a view to promoting sales of the first of the Soviet Union’s original aircraft designs to be built in numbers. After a delayed arrival in Kabul, the three R-5s returned to Moscow.

A poor-quality but extremely rare photograph of the first batch of aircraft supplied to Afghanistan, comprising a Nieuport 24 and a Sopwith 1 1/2-Strutter, being transported through a characteristically primitive mountain pass by elephant during September-November 1921. The arduous journey through the Hindu Kush took some seven weeks.

Another Junkers F 13 used by Dobrolyot for flights in Afghanistan was the unnamed R-RDAK, which made a Termez-Kabul flight on November 13-18, 1927. The Tashkent-Kabul route was officially opened in early January 1928.

Junkers F 13 (reportedly also referred to by the Soviets as a “Ju 13”) R-RDAZ during its transport by train to Central Asia circa 1924. Note the legend “Dobrolyot” (the Soviet air transport organisation) on the engine cowling, below which is the aircraft’s name “Samolyot Pishchevik” - literally “Aeroplane Food Industry Worker”.

In late May 1929 five Soviet-built Junkers T 21s (aka “Ju 21s”) of the Soviet Air Force’s Termez-based 35th Air Detachment of the 454th Air Brigade may have taken part in a secret mission against insurgents in Tashqurgan, bearing no markings of any kind, as seen here. The T 21 was a two-seat reconnaissance parasol-wing monoplane, with a flexible gun-mounting fitted to the rear cockpit.