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

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Category: Jets and Growth 1948-64

Last Updated: Sunday, 10 June 2018 01:48

Written by Videos

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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)

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The Track

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Category: The Siachen Glacier

Last Updated: Sunday, 06 May 2018 04:05

Written by Webmaster

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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.  

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

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Category: Tributes

Last Updated: Tuesday, 01 May 2018 04:19

Written by Webmaster

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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. 

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

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Category: Jets and Growth 1948-64

Last Updated: Wednesday, 25 April 2018 01:00

Written by P V S Jagan Mohan

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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

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

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Category: The Last Quarter: 1972-99

Last Updated: Sunday, 11 March 2018 01:58

Written by Wg Cdr P K Raveendran SC

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 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!.

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Pilot Officer Phillipos - Accounts Branch Officer in WW2

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Category: Veterans Project - Interviews, Profiles and Memoirs

Last Updated: Saturday, 03 February 2018 18:24

Written by Wg Cdr A Phillipos

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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.   

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The first landing at Nyoma

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Category: The Indo-China War 1962

Last Updated: Tuesday, 23 January 2018 04:32

Written by Webmaster

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 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. 

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First MiG-23BN fighter landing at Leh

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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: 8515

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.

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Boulton-Paul Defiant TT.I & TT.III

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Category: Retired Aircraft Histories

Last Updated: Monday, 18 September 2017 19:10

Written by Jagan Pillarisetti

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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!

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

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Category: Tributes

Last Updated: Sunday, 17 September 2017 04:49

Written by Webmaster

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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. 

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