The legacy of Jaap Horsthuis

On November 8, 2021, Jaap Horsthuis died. Jaap was an aviation enthusiast since his youngest years. He went tot he Royal Military Academy to become an officer in the Royal Netherlands Air Force. In 1961 he got a job at Leeuwarden Air Force Base as a technical officer. By that time Leeuwarden was the home base of three squadrons of Hawker Hunters. Moreover, there were regular NATO-exercises at Leeuwarden. In 1962 he was sent to Boroku Airfield at Mokmer on Biak, Dutch New Guinea, to be responsible for the last operations of the Hunters and the repatriation of those aircraft to the Netherlands. In 1963 he returned to his job at Leeuwarden. Photographing at military installations was forbidden in those days, the years of the cold war. Nevertheless he was able to make a number of slides and b&w negatives at Biak and at Leeuwarden.

After his Leeuwarden period he had several functions, such as a time at the West German air force headquaters at Wahn to learn about the introduction of the F-104, a management function at the ‘Depot Straalmotoren’ (DSM, workplace  and storage for jet engines) at Woensdrecht. He became the commander of the ‘Depot Vliegtuigmaterieel’ (DVM, workplace and storage for aircraft parts) at Gilze-Rijen and had several jobs at the air force staff in The Hague. He was pensioned as a colonel.

During his whole life he had been collecting slides, negatives, photos, books, magazines and data, lots of data, all about military aircraft. After his death his children had to clean up his house, and fortunately they did not throw it all away, but donated the whole collection tot he guys of Scramble. And I was so lucky to get his collection of slides, negatives and photos.

In 1990 he was the author of the book ‘Hawker Hunter’, part 4 in the series ‘Vliegend in Nederland’.

At this page I like to show you his slides and negatives, taken at Biak in 1962 and at Leeuwarden in 1963. A legacy which is well worth to be shown!