Vinayak Hegde

After the static display and the helicopters, it was the performance of the Surya Kirans planes that blew everyone away. They just flew off amongst the loudest cheers of the crowd which had been standing to see them perform for almost the whole day. Then there was silence for 10-15 minutes as other small aircrafts were performing stunts in mid-air. Then suddenly there were loud cheers from the crowd as the Surya Kiran planes came out of nowhere and were etching patterns in the sky.

They came zooming in from behind the crowd

Going Upwards

At angles

Almost headon over us

In T-Formation overhead

Dispersing in various directions downwards

While taking a look at the static display, planes had already started flying overhead and performing all kinds of gravity defying aero-acrobatics.

What was surprising for me was the number and the variety of helicopters on display and in the air. Unfortunately due to the cheering crowd I could not hear the names of the helicopters. Here are some pictures of those.

But the best display was that of Sarang Helicopters. They first all lined up in a row in the air

And then separated out from each other. After a small lull and disappearing from view, suddenly I saw one coming in from the left

Then two side-by-side from my right.

They crossed over when they seemed right on collision course.

Quite a close shave that (though not apparent from the pictures – they were approaching each other at 320 kms per hour). The pilots must have had amazing skill not to mention enough confidence to pull off something like this. The display by Sarang was truly exhilarating but not as good as the Saras Planes to be covered in my next post.

I went to Aeroindia on Feb 14th, Saturday at the Yelahanka Air Force Base. The Airstrip is visible from my house and I was able to see the fighters practice about a week before for the airshow. Nevertheless it was good to go to the IAF airbase to see the planes up-close.

The first planes on display were the vintage training planes such as the De Havilland Tigermoth 82 and Harvard MK IV. These planes seems to have a British legacy as they were used by the RAF of Britain to train pilots as well as by the nascent IAF. Here are the pictures of the planes.

de Havilland Tigermoth 82

Harvard MK IV

There were about 10-15 modern aircraft on display including Mirage-2000 (in pictures below), MIG-21 Bison, Jaguars and Sukhoi-30.

Underwing Armaments for MIG-27M-Bison

Indian Air Force Mi-35 Hind – Not as intimidating as the Apaches

Dhruv Helicopters Built for Equador

There were also students from PESIT who had this high performance engine vehicle on display and were continually driving between the barricades between the people and the static display. I could not catch what was special about this vehicle as the airshow was about to start. If you know something about this. Leave a comment, I will add it to the post.

High Performance Vehicle from PESIT