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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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Databases

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Category: Database
Last Updated: Tuesday, 27 February 2018 02:10
Written by Webmaster
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IAF Awards Database Updated - Now current till 2018! Contains 4731 individual award records. Officer's Service Page features now enhanced to show Gazetted Promotions where available. 

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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
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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
Hits: 9717

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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No.1 Squadron “Tigers” and the Imphal Siege

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Category: The Royal Indian Air Force in the Second World War
Last Updated: Wednesday, 13 September 2017 03:24
Written by Jagan Pillarisetti
Hits: 19212

The complete story of No.1 Squadron's operations in the Imphal Battle told in detail never before known. First published in an abridged form for the WW2 Imphal Battle Commemoration Brochure. This article also puts names to the unknown faces - and lists out those who sacrificed their lives in the battle.

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Inside Occupied Kashmir

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Category: The 1947-48 Jammu & Kashmir Operations
Last Updated: Wednesday, 23 August 2017 04:10
Written by P N Sharma
Hits: 10338

P.N. Sharma was a reporter for the well known weekly magazine the BLITZ being published from Bombay. He was one of the first war correspondents on scene in Kashmir during the 1947 airlift of troops to Kashmir. His 1957 book, Inside Occupied Kashmir is not well known, but is a rare insight of some of the first combined operations of the war. Sharma's adventure started with his being on a public relations joyride in one of the IAF's Harvards. This account tells what happened on that fateful day.

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Flying with the Legend - Air Commodore R S Benegal

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Category: The Bangladesh War 1971
Last Updated: Tuesday, 15 August 2017 04:24
Written by Air Marshal G C S Rajwar (Retd)
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Air Marshal G C S Rajwar , commissioned in 1963 as part of the 26th Navigator Course, is a veteran of two wars. He was the navigator to the CO of No.106 Squadron in the 1971 war, then Wg Cdr R S Benegal.  He wrote this piece about his missions in the war as an "Afterword" for the autobiographical book by late Air Commodore R S Benegal - Burma to Japan with the Azad Hind .  

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