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Panther Red One : The Sequel

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Category: Book Projects & Announcements
Last Updated: Tuesday, 30 May 2017 00:51
Written by Webmaster
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The much awaited sequel to the delightful "Panther Red One: Memoirs of a Fighter Pilot". The author Air Marshal S Raghavendran is the retired Vice Chief of the Indian Air Force. In this sequel, he chronicles his career where the first book left off. Covering the staff and operational command appointments, the Air Marshal holds no punches in describing the disconnect between the government bureaucracy and the Defence procurement and planning wings.

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Indians over Flanders

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Category: The Pioneers of Flight
Last Updated: Tuesday, 01 November 2016 00:56
Written by K S Nair
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Only four Indians are definitively known to have been military aviators in World War One. They blazed a remarkable trail for the six hundred odd who took up that occupation in World War Two (including at least one Bollywood actor), and the three thousand-odd who serve in that role in India today.

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Ejecting from a Mystere IVa

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Category: War and Peace - 1962 -71
Last Updated: Sunday, 30 October 2016 16:37
Written by Video Channel
Hits: 7137

On 8th March 1967, a young Flying Officer, with less than four years of service, found himself in a predicament over the skies of northern India when the aircraft's main gear did not deploy correctly.  Then Fg Offr David "Dadoo" Subaiya was faced with the choice of crash landing or trusting the SNCASO ejection seat of his Mystere IVa fighter bomber. This is his story in Video!

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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 Indian Air Force Act, 1932 (Act No. XIV of 1932)

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Category: Birth of an Air Force
Last Updated: Thursday, 08 October 2015 03:52
Written by Webmaster
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Every history starts with the words "The Indian Air Force was officially established by the Indian Air Force Act as notified in the Gazette of India dated 8th October 1932...", but has anyone actually seen the IAF Act of 1932 that was passed by the Indian Legislature in April 1932? To which the Governor General of India gave his assent on 8th April 1932? .. the same act which was subsequently published in the Gazette on 8th October?

Well here it is --- as it was originally introduced and later passed by the Legislature into the "Indian Air Force Act, 1932" 

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The Battle Axe who became a Sabre Slayer

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Category: The India-Pakistan War 1965
Last Updated: Friday, 18 September 2015 02:26
Written by Book Excerpt - The India-Pakistan Air War of 1965
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Commemorating another 'Sabre Slayer' - then Flying Officer P S Pingale, who had to eject after being shot down on September 6th, took to the air ten days later and extracted his pound of flesh - by shooting down a PAF Sabre.  During this short but fierce encounter, Pingale also went head to head in air combat with the Pakistani ace M M Alam. 

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The Night Raiders : Good Morning Peshawar

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Category: The India-Pakistan War 1965
Last Updated: Wednesday, 16 September 2015 03:27
Written by Gp Capt Amrik Singh Ahluwalia
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On September 13th, 50 years back the greatest bomber operation against Pakistan was launched by the Indian Air Force. It had all the drama and melodrama, climax and anti-climax, it was a yes, yes, no, no and then YES! It was the operation with the greatest precision on the part of the Indian Air Force, a top-secret mission, known to very few on the top--the AOC-in-C of the Western Air Command, the then CAS (now Marshal of the Indian Air Force) and a few staff officers working on the planning and execution of the mission. These were the 4th and 5th Operational Missions for Gp Capt Amrik Ahluwalia, who narrated the story in Chapter 16 of his book Airborne to Chairborne. The article shares both his thoughts and the actual planning and execution of the mission and the top secrecy from India and a great surprise attack on Pakistan--never, ever, expected by them even in their dreams. 

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