The southern port city of Chennai (previously known as Madras) is an important port and military establishment during the British era. The target of the German raider Emden during the first World War, Chennai is home to Tambaram Air Force Station situated outside Chennai (Formerly known as Madras). Tambaram houses the Flying Instructor's School (FIS) of the Indian Air Force. The city airport is the Meenambakam International Airport, which is located near St Thomas Mount. St Thomas Mount is a WW II era airfield that operated the Coastal Defence Flights as well as Fleet Air Arm Squadrons.

The City has a considerable number of warbirds around, surprisingly most of them being maintained by Non-Military establishments. Vijay Simha Reddy , an alumni of IIT Chennai, brings in this exclusive report and photographs. Other photographs are provided by Harry B.

	A Close up of the front portion of Sea Hawk [IN-235]  stored at the Indian Institute of Technology , Chennai. Pic Courtesy : Vijay Simha Reddy
At the Madras International Airport, a Fokker F27 of the Elbee Airways was a prominent sight just in front of the passenger terminal till recently. It was towed away to a different part of the Meenamabakam airfield on the orders of a central govt minister. Pic Courtesy : Unknown - Let us know

The Indian Navy donated one Sea Hawk airframe to the Indian Institute of Technology at Adyar. Another Sea Hawk was donated to the Madras Institute of Technology in Chromepet. Initially there had been confusing reports that this airframe was also with IIT. But since then we had been corrected and finally B Harry from Chennai had sent us the picture of the elusive "Second Seahawk from IIT" to us. As it turns out..its at MIT 

The abudance of Engineering institutes in Chennai also meant that there are some rare aircraft on display in the city. One such insitute is the Hindustan Institute of Engineering and Technology.

There is a rare Percival Prentice airframe and a derelict Harvard on view at unspecified locations in Chennai. The photographs of these airframes can be seen by clicking on the links above. A rare HF-24 Marut twin seater is on view at the Periyar Technology Center. During the Annual Republic Day parade, A Gnat airframe was seen being towed before the dias in the mid Nineties. It is believed it could be an airframe from AFS Tambaram. The following is the list of Warbirds reported in and around Chennai.