Airliners-India.com

747-237

Great to see the IAF restore yet another airplane that my dad trained on.

http://www.janes.com/article/41255/sixth-indian-c-17-arrives-in-delhi-with-special-cargo

The newly arrived C-17 travelled to India via the UK, where it picked up a 1930s-era IAF Harvard IIB trainer restored by UK's Relflight Airworks. The Harvard is joining a similarly refurbished de Havilland Tiger Moth biplane in the Vintage Flight Squadron (VFS) raised in 2008 in New Delhi.

Official sources said the Harvard was restored in around two years for an estimated INR25 million (USD42,000), while the Tiger Moth was refurbished - also in the UK - for INR10 million.

The 15-year VFS programme also envisages the restoration of a Hawker Hurricane and Spitfire fighter, one Hawker Tempest fighter/bomber and a Westland Lysander liaison aircraft. All were in active IAF service until the late 1940s and early 1950s.

The final phase will see the refurbishment of a Wapiti bi-plane, which dates back to the 1920s and was the IAF's first aircraft when it was created on 8 October 1932 as an auxiliary air force of the British Empire.

"It's a slice of the IAFs history rejoining the fleet," retired Air Marshal V K 'Jimmy' Bhatia, who trained on the Harvard and its T-6 Texan successor in the early 1960s, told IHS Jane's . "It's good nostalgia that the IAF is re-creating."

The_Goat · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2014 12:22 am Post subject:

Good news. And even better that the Wapiti is going to be restored.

I believe that a DC-3 is undergoing restoration as well. Yet another type of aircraft your dad piloted, 747-237.

I hope the vintage flight squadron maintains these restored birds well and does not hand them over to the IAF museum. There was a Spitfire restored a few years back, and later allowed to gather dust in the IAF museum. Subsequently, some parts from it were reported missing.
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I don't know which is the more pampered bunch : AI's widebodies (the aunties) or Jet's widebodies (the planes).
-Jasepl

747-237 · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2014 12:29 am Post subject:

The_Goat · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2014 1:06 pm Post subject:

747-237 · Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 8:14 am Post subject: