Video: The Spitfire was the reason that I joined the IAF

Details

Category: Jets and Growth 1948-64

Last Updated: Sunday, 10 June 2018 01:48

Written by Videos

Hits: 254

A Spitfire veteran reminisces - Air Marshal S Raghavendran , who retired as VCAS of the Indian Air Force remembers his favourite aircraft - The Supermarine Spitfire. He was motivated to join the IAF to fly this legendary fighter - and shares his memories of those early years.  (Duration : 7 minutes)

Read more ...

The Track

Details

Category: The Siachen Glacier

Last Updated: Sunday, 06 May 2018 04:05

Written by Webmaster

Hits: 1578

Moved by the  plight of a group of stranded soldiers on the Amar Post, the CO of a HU decides in haste to undertake a sortie in bad visibility.. and mid way into the sortie, starts regretting it.  Its the ubiquitous presence of 'The Track' that helps overcome the dis-orientation and danger.  

Read more ...

Obituary - Air Chief Marshal Idris Hasan Latif (1923-2018)

Details

Category: Tributes

Last Updated: Tuesday, 01 May 2018 04:19

Written by Webmaster

Hits: 1241

Air Chief Marshal Idris Hasan Latif (IND/1804 GD(P)), former Chief of Air Staff and WW2 Veteran has passed away in Hyderabad on 30th April 2018. His death marks just about six months since he lost his wife, Mrs Bilkees Latif.  ACM Latif has been unwell the past year .  And his passing away less than an year of losing the Marshal of the Air Force is a double blow to the IAF fraternity. 

Read more ...

......and one flew under the ......

Details

Category: Jets and Growth 1948-64

Last Updated: Wednesday, 25 April 2018 01:00

Written by P V S Jagan Mohan

Hits: 10122

Many years ago (circa 2002) we published the story of Flight Cadet Balan Menon and the escapade that caused his exist from the Air Force. Balan Menon passed away on 24th April 2018 at 1630 hrs, due to respiratory complications, at the old age home in Thumba (Trivandrum).

"A man with a brilliant mind, determination and undying passion for aviation, a maverick who lived by his own rules of right or wrong, never afraid to explore frontiers of science and technology far ahead of his peergroup, a man who could have achieved fame and fortune but didn't care; he has left us quietly." ~ Wg Cdr U G Kartha

Read more ...

The Pushpaka's last flight - The untold story of 4th Nov 1977

Details

Category: The Last Quarter: 1972-99

Last Updated: Sunday, 11 March 2018 01:58

Written by Wg Cdr P K Raveendran SC

Hits: 9841

 Wg Cdr P K Raveendran was a young under-trainee flight engineer on a VIP flight to Jorhat in November 1977 when tragedy struck. The miraculous survival story of the Prime Minister of India, Shri Morarji Desai was tempered by the tragic loss of the Flight Crew.  The author recollects the events surrounding the flight, the crash and subsequent rescue effort - and as a post script - his journey to the crash site forty years later!.

Read more ...

Pilot Officer Phillipos - Accounts Branch Officer in WW2

Details

Category: Veterans Project - Interviews, Profiles and Memoirs

Last Updated: Saturday, 03 February 2018 18:24

Written by Wg Cdr A Phillipos

Hits: 9212

Updated 03 February 2018: We regret to inform that Wg Cdr A Philipos passed away in Bengaluru on 31st January 2018. He was 101 years old.  Original: Wg Cdr A Phillipos  3033 GD(P) was commissioned as an Accounts Branch Officer in 1944.  He recently turned 100 years old and was felicitated by the Air Force Records Office in Bangalore. In this short article, he writes about his introduction to service life under the British.   

Read more ...

The first landing at Nyoma

Details

Category: The Indo-China War 1962

Last Updated: Tuesday, 23 January 2018 04:32

Written by Webmaster

Hits: 5385

 The first landing at Nyoma was ostensibly carried out by an An-32 in 2009,  but lost among the records are the details of a flight carried out 47 years later - Now a photograph has surfaced proving the first landing in 1962. 

Read more ...

First MiG-23BN fighter landing at Leh

Details

Category: The Siachen Glacier

Last Updated: Sunday, 10 December 2017 21:50

Written by Air Marshal A D Joshi PVSM VM M-in-D

Hits: 8522

With the escalation of the Siachen operations in 1984, Contingency plans were developed to utilise high performance fighter aircraft from Leh airfield as and when needed.  Air Marshal A D Joshi narrates the first landing of the MiG-23BN at Leh airport - The planning and training for this event was no simple matter, as this narration will make it evident.

Read more ...

Boulton-Paul Defiant TT.I & TT.III

Details

Category: Retired Aircraft Histories

Last Updated: Monday, 18 September 2017 19:10

Written by Jagan Pillarisetti

Hits: 12309

The previous version of our Defiant article noted that "Perhaps some day more information or photos will come to light that goes on to prove beyond all doubt that the Defiant was truely one of the aircraft that was on the IAF's inventory.".That day is here - The Defiant was truely one of the aircraft in the IAF's inventory. Details of the units and information on some of the pilots who flew the aircraft during the war are updated here. Now updated with a third photo of the Defiant in IAF service!

Read more ...

Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh (1919-2017)

Details

Category: Tributes

Last Updated: Sunday, 17 September 2017 04:49

Written by Webmaster

Hits: 10457

Its an end of an era - Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh, the only five star rank officer in the IAF, a legendary and much beloved name in the Air Force Fraternity is no more. He was the Air Chief during the critical 1965 India-Pakistan war at a young age of 46.  He passed away yesterday (16th September 2017) in New Delhi.  A statement from the Ministry of Defence said he was admitted to the hospital on Saturday morning following a cardiac arrest, and breathed his last at 7.47 PM.  Prior to his demise he was one of the last surviving officers of the IAF who had trained at RAF Cranwell, and also one of the last surviving DFC awardees of the IAF. 

Read more ...