HAL Gnat E-1046 seen mounted on poles at Hashimara. The aircraft features the emblem of No.22 Squadron 'The Swifts'. Picture Courtesy:  Sanjay Simha

Hashimara Air Force Station is located in the Jaipalguri district in North-west West Bengal.  Raised as 16 Wing sometime in the early 1960s, Hashimara was initially home to IAF Toofani squadrons. No.47 and No.29 being two of them. Subsequently, Hunter squadrons operated out of Hashimara. Nos 17 and 37 operated with distinction during the 1971 War. Hashimara continued its association with Hunters by providing a home to No.20 Squadron, during its avatar as the Thunderbolts Aerobatic Display team in the 80s.  Over the years various other AF fighter units operated from here including Gnats, Ajeets and MiG21Bis fighters.

No.22 Squadron 'The Swifts' were one of the squadrons which move to Hashimara in Feb 1990. They were flying the Ajeets at that point of time. Two months later the Swifts re-equipped with the MiG-27ML ground attack aircraft. One of the aircraft displayed at Hashimara is a HAL Gnat E-1046 bearing the Squadron's 'Swifts' emblem.

	Dassault Ouragan IC-867 can be seen on display just in front of the Officers Mess of the Hashimara Air Force Station.
Starboard view of Dassault Ouragan IC-867 . The Aircraft canopy and windshield seems to have been made up of aluminium sheets. The original perspex probably lost over the years.
	Port   view of Dassault Ouragan IC-867 shows the '8' in the serial number on the tail. There are however no aircraft that were numbered IC-867 in the IAF. The Black Archers motif is painted on the nose on both sides of the aircraft.

The Officers Mess at Hashimara Air Force Station offers a good place for war relics. A rare Dassault Ouragan is on display in front of the mess. The Ouragan is painted standard IAF Grey and is on a platform. The canopy is missing and replaced with sheet metal. The aircraft sports the serial IC-867, but since this number is not in the IAFs ToE, its considered possible that this aircraft is actually IC-667. The aircraft sports the Black Archers emblem on the nose - no doubt a remnant of No.47 Squadron's stint at Hashimara in the 1965-68 period. The Ouragan is one of the only five extant airframes known to be in India at this point of time [Feb2006].

The Hashimara airfield also features a derelict. A fire ravaged airframe of a MiG-27 still stands on its undercarraige at one part of the airfield. The Aircraft TS-517 of No.222 "Tigersharks" Squadron appears to have suffered a fire in the engine bay in the rear. Aparently the aircraft seems to have been stripped of all usable parts. Since the aircraft still features camo scheme and squadron emblem of No.222, it appears that this accident occured before the "Tipnis Grey" order came into effect..

MiG-27ML TS-517 on the Hashimara air field shows the ravages of a fire to the rear part of the fuselage, probably a result of a faulty engine? The aircraft seems to have been stripped clean of all usable parts.

There have been reports of a Hawker Hunter seen as a gate guardian at Hashimara. No confirmation on its identity nor any photographs have been seen till date.

All Photographs, unless specified otherwise, are copyright of Rahul Devnath (www.indian-airforce.info)