Other Warbirds

Details

Pune ::

Published: Tuesday, 10 February 2009 15:12

Various

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.

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. Click on the links on the left to visit the aircraft on display at Lohegaon and elsewhere.

Though unidentified, this Lockheed Super Constellation was noticed derelict and rusting until a few years back. It is presumed to have been broken up later on. Pic Courtesy : Skytrucks via A Pannu

There were two Super Constellations rumoured to be in Lohegaon. These were initially used for Maritime Recoinannasance by No.6 Squadron in the 60s and 70s before they were handed over to the Indian Navy. For short time the Connies operated out of Dabolim in Goa. Once they were phased out the Constellations were dumped at Lohegaon. Since then, One Constellation was shipped to the Naval Aviation Museum in Goa. Another was being prepared for the Indian Air Force Museum. The remaining Connies were marked for scrapping in the late 90s. The fate of these aircraft is not known.