Sometime back, the Laxman Anantaramu mentioned that the Maharaja of Faridkot had a collection of old aircraft, but details were not quite available. The Maharaja had a fascination for cars, armoured vehicles and even aircraft. When he died, he had locked up all his wealth in a Trust fund known as the Maharaja Khewalji Trust.
Recently Anandeep Pannu pointed out to us a very interesting link on the Tribune India website which was a Video on the Faridkot Palace. The video revealed halfway thru, a dusty hangar in which several civilian type vintage aircraft were rotting away in various stages of Decay. Posters from the Warbirds Information Exchange have offered several comments.
Graham O, who runs the Classic Wings Downunder Magazine has this to say about the video
“What you have here is a Fairchild F24W (the one that looks vaguely Beaverish) and a broken Percival Proctor (either Mk.IV or Mk.V). Look at the photo of the Gipsy style cowling. It matches another of the photos and you’ll see the familiar bulbous windscreen of a late model Proctor. You can then see how the two photos join up, and that the Proctor has broken about throiugh the area of the front seats. This is normal when the structure deteriorates and the weight of the engine overcomes the structure at its weakest point.”
The Proctor seems to be the worst off aircraft in the whole lot, the front engine and cowling portion seemed to have broken away due to the weakening of the joint at the bulkhead.
A Stinson Sentinel can be seen at the right foreground of the photograph, with the Proctor at the rear.
Thats not all, Sanjay Simha of Bangalore reports that there have been rumours of Vintage Crated Spitfires trying to be acquired by British collectors going around. Now has anyone seen these stashed away aircraft?
Negative. Spitfires, crated or otherwise, were never there. I have done extensive research and visited the ‘airfield’ and the hangar and the Fort.
The three derelict airplanes are still there. Thats it. The Royal family never owned Spitfires. Neither did Faridkot State.
Though there is some rumour that at some time in the distant past ‘Dakota’s’ have used the kutcha airfield.