All-women contingent, Tejas twin seater... IAF air show to have many firsts

PRAYAGRAJ: The Air Force Day parade on Sunday morning and the grand fly past in the evening being held at Sangam city to mark the 91st Indian Air Force Day will have quite a few firsts. To begin with, the commander of the parade will be a group captain rank woman officer, and for the first time, the parade will include an all-women contingent as well as women recruited under the newly launched Agniveer Vayu.

The evening air show will, for the first time, display the Tejas Mark-i twin-seater trainer variant of the aircraft that was handed over to the IAF earlier this month. The showstopper will be the gala farewell of MiG-21 Bison fighters which will perhaps fly for the last time in any air show in the country as it is being phased out.

The Air Force Day parade at Air Force station, Bamrauli, would be the first to be commanded by a women officer, Group Captain Shaliza Dhami. She is also the first woman officer of the IAF to command a combat unit.

MiG-21 Bison will fly for the last time
In another ‘First time’, team Sarang have arrived with five helicopters and they will be showcasing a manoeuvre wherein two helicopters will make a heart (by emitting smoke) while the third one will pierce it with an arrow as seen in cupid arrow form.

Likewise, for the first time, the parade will have an all-women contingent comprising the newly inducted Agniveer Vayu women. These 31 women air warriors will march shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts. Parade will be reviewed by Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari (PVSM AVSM VM ADC) and will be attended by Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), General Anil Chauhan. In other events lined up, an air show and flypast will enthral thousands of spectators in the vast Sangam area. The air show will display the Tejas Mark-i twin-seater trainer variant of aircraft for first time.

The LCA Tejas Twin-Seater is a lightweight, all-weather multi-role 4.5 generation aircraft. It is designed to support the training requirements of the IAF and augment itself to the role of a fighter in case of necessity. The production of the LCA twin-seater variant puts India among select countries who have created such the capability to operate them.

The air show will feature about 108 aircraft of the IAF, along with Chetak, ALH Dhruva helicopters of the IAF and Indian Army, Chinook helicopters, Surya Kirans, Sarang, the newly inducted C-295 transport aircraft, Rafale, Prachand, Sukhoi Su-30, Jaguar, Apache Mi-17, MiG-29, Tejas, Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) and the Hawk. The IAF, too, has made suitable arrangements to make the farewell of MiG-21 a memorable moment. “The MiG-21 Bison will be flying for the last time in any air show and as such this ace fighter has played a pivotal role in several battles, right from its induction in 1963.

This will be a memorable and emotional moment for IAF and we will make sure that this fighter is given an extraordinary and memorable farewell,” said defence PRO, Gp Capt Samir Gangakhedkar. In 1939, during World WarII, Russia and America were both trying to increase their power in the sky.

Two aircraft designers Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich took up this responsibility for the Soviet Union, as Russia was known then. The Soviets named company MiG wherein M was taken from Mikoyan and G from Gurevich. In Russian, ‘i’ stands for ‘and’ and thus name, MiG.

In 1956, first supersonic aircraft flew in Soviet skies, named MiG-21. This aircraft could go up to 2,229 km in an hour. In 1959, MiG-21 supersonic fighter aircraft joined the Soviet Union’s Air Force fleet and continued to dominate world for four years.

In April 1963, for the first time, Indian Air Force included Soviet Russia’s MiG-21 in its fleet to increase its capability. From 1967, rights and technology to assemble MiG-21 in India were granted to HAL.


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