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sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

On a FB group, I have been following this quite intently.
An interesting ironical fact is that many currently air-worthy WW2-era warbirds are ex-IAF, notably Spitfires. This is an amazing (albeit, second-hand) tribute to the IAF's Engineering skills, maintenance, and spares repository, and planning. What is sad is that these planes were never cared for after their retirement, either in the IAF, or outside, in a country starved of funds. Many IAF personnel may have liked to contribute their sheer love and manpower to the maintenance of these birds, but this ran into red tape. And even when a plane is lovingly restored in India, it sometimes is off-limits for us civilians, such as the lovingly restored silver Caribou, that most of us can only admire from the secondary runway at Delhi, since ther eis no space inside the really cramped IAF Museum at Palam. Member The_Goat woudl possibly remember our conversation over the airworthy Spitfire at the IAF Museum, which we had a long conversation about, on this forum. This woudl be of interest to Dr.Ganguly, as well.

Here are some snippets of conversation between me, and a senior member of that group.
-Also funny how an airworthy Me 109 disappeared from the Engg College at Gulbarga Karnataka...
- Sir: something more about the Gulbarga Me-109? Where was it: the PDACE? And the Palam museum Spitfire was airworthy when she was taken out in 1982, and simply flown without much ado, in the 50th anniversary parade, from what my friends tell me.
- Air Cmde Vikram Singh's father - the late Air Marshal Priti Singh flew that Spit...
I have a book with the detaills of all the world's Airworthy Spits...
Gulbarga ... Yes... They suddenly realised that this plane was with them... Brought in during WW 2 as a Morale Booster as it was force landed in Europe by the " Hyderabad" Sqn RAF... It was brought to the Princely Sate of Hyderabad as a token of appreciation for the funds given to the RAF by the Nizam...Dr Anuradha Reddy has documented this very well in her remarkable book " Civil Aviation in the Dominion of Hyderabad "...
When the IAF heard of this aircraft they went to acquire it for AFTC Hebbal...alas, it had mysteriously disappeared!!!
- Sir, thanks for the two pieces of information: about the 1982 Spit flight, as well as the PDACE Gulbarga's vanished Me-109. The latter: since I do not have access to Dr. Anuradha Reddy's book, can you post a few relevant details? I can try to garner some local information from PDACE, in case you can also give me the timeline. Last, you mean AFTC Jalahalli, right? Jalahalli has some nice planes on view, at least, it had: which I saw in some torrential rains, circa Sep 2007.
- I am trying to find out more about the PDACE Me-109 from a friend who is there. LEt me see if I can get any information! PDACE is right next to the railway line..I guess that also points to how it may have been whisked away in crates, and that too, officially, rather than a 5/6 hour drive to Hyderabad. Or was it flown out? Gulbarga has a small airstrip, which may now be developed as a greenfield airport
- Sir: here is what I got from my friend today: he remembers seeing the Me-109 in the middle of the PDACE campus in the early 1980s, and remembers it disappearing some 8 years back. A link to a relevant article is this:
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htmurph/articles/20061106.aspx
My friend is not much of an aircrat enthusiast, but let me see what else I can get from him. Some pictures will be awesome, but I doubt if he has any, that too from the 1980s. Sir, can you give any more updates here?
- Shall go through her book also...
It will make an interesting story... The Houdini Act of this bird...

sabya99 · Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2015 6:13 pm Post subject:

Sumantra, please post a picture of Toofani ( Mystere jet aircraft of IAF ). I have a story to go with it. Thanks'
Sabya99
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Sabya99

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

..continuing with the Bf-109 story, it turns out that the one-and-only PVS Jagan Rao has a thorough story on this:
http://www.warbirds.in/wdy/235-warbird-discovery-of-the-year-2002.html
Sad...