Warbirds of India

This Canberra was first reported by Aditya Vaze of IIT. He mentioned that it was at the Shivaji Preparatory Military school in Pune. The SSPMS was located on Kennedy Road, also known as the Bund Road on the backside of the Pune Railway Station.

English Electric Canberra B(I) 58 IF-910 displayed inside the airbase, this aircraft is in excellent condition and is mounted on jacks.

Lohegaon had been a permanent Airbase for Canberras from the time they were inducted till the time they reached the twilight of thier career. Besides Agra, Lohegaon is the only airbase to share the distinction of hosting the Canberra units for nearly two decades. One of the parent Squadrons here was No.35 Squadron. In the later years No.6 Maritime Squadron operated a flight of Canberra B66s till the early 90s.

C-2098 as seen some years back at the entrance of the Lohegaon AFB. The color scheme is suspected to be derived from the standard Camoflage paints the IAF uses on its Hangars. Pic Courtesy : Simon Watson

Lohegaon Air Force Station at Pune was one of the oldest establishments of the Indian Air Force. Going all the way back to the fifties, the airfield was base to Vampires, Canberras, the gigantic Super Constellations, and later on the MIG-21s. Lohegaon operates the MiG-29 Squadrons and the Maritime operationsof the Jaguar IMs of No.6 Squadron. These had been joined in by the Sukhoi-30MK and MKIs of Nos 20 and 24 Squadrons. Lohegaon also houses No.9 Base Repair Depot, which concentrates on the maintenance of Electronic gadgetry of the Air Force.

Satara a small town that is about 90 km from the city of Pune , roughly halfway to Kolhapur. it is the district Headquarters for the Satara District, which is adjacent to Pune District. Satara is connected by NH4 in the National Highway grid.

D-1201 at the Kamala Nehru Park in Pune. The aircraft appears to be in good condition Pic Courtesy : Kapil Chandni

Pune is one of the largest cities in Southern India and one of the major Airbases, that the Indian Air Force inherited after the second world war.

In Pune proper, there is a HAL HF-24 Marut preserved in the park by the name Kamala Nehru Park. Kapil Chandni visited the park and took a photograph of D-1201which is in excellent condition.