Warbirds of India

This unidentifed Sea Hawk is at INS Garuda , for technical training purposes. Believed to be either IN-154,IN-195 or IN-231 Pic Courtesy: Sainik Samachar

The region of Kerala was the birthplace of Naval Aviation, with the establishment of the Indian Navy's first Air Units at Cochin. Cochin was an RAF Airbase during World War Two, and several RAF and Royal Navy's FAA Squadrons operated till the end of the war. Before its decommissioning in 1946, Several Royal Navy aircraft like the Hellcats and Avengers, were dumped in the sea off Cochin under the American Lend-Lease Plan.

INAS Garuda, Cochin

Cochin was taken over by the Indian Navy again in 1953, with the formation of the INAS Garuda, and the Fleet Requirement Unit (Later INAS 550)flying the Short Sealand aircraft for the Navy. From then till the shifting of the Naval Aviation centre to Dabolim in Goa, several aircraft like the Firefly, HT-2 , Vampires, Kirans, Islanders etc were used from this airfield.

 

When the Navy acquired the INS Vikrant and the Sea Hawk aircraft, Cochin provided the land base whenever the Vikrant was not at sea. Sea Hawks were based here at one point of the other throughout their career with the Indian Navy. One Mi-4 gifted by the Soviet Union for surveillance duties of Thumba was operated by the Naval pilots from Cochin. This aircraft was withdrawn from use after it became obsolete due to lack of spares. For sometime the IAF had based No.1 Target Towing Unit at Cochin which operated the Dakota aircraft. Several aircraft including some Sea Hawks and the Thumba Mi-4 were observed in Cochin airbase.

To, fulfilling the role of being a center for technical training in Aviation for the Navy, a A Naval Air Technical Services Center was set up in Kochi at around 1958. This was later renamed to the Naval Institute of Aeronautical Technology in the eighties. The NIAT is to the Naval Aviation, what AFTC Jallahali is to the airforce. Over the years, the Indian Navy's technical officers and men graduated out of its portals.

NIAT's 'X-Ray' aircraft, an Alize from the "Cobras" Squadron. Since only about a dozen of these aircraft were acquired , this is one of the five Alizes that have survived. Pic Courtesy: Sainik Samachar

The NIAT has several aircraft in its collection used for instructional purposes. Sandeep Unnithan recently made a visit to Cochin and sent us back most of the photographs from this page.

	The Sea Hawk IN-172 is as seen on display in Cochin town. The aircraft is in the unique flying position with gear retracted and with droptanks and even dummy rockets under its wings. Note the serial number in large letters just ahead of the inlets. Usually the Sea Hawk has the serial numbers on the rear fuselage in small letters. Pic by: Kapil Chandni
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In some ways, it was strange not to come across any Warbirds in Cochin, navy ones even more so considering the fact that INS Garuda, is considered the birthplace of Naval Aviation ever since the Fleet Requirement Unit(FRU) was set up there in 1951.

Prowling about looking for Warbirds in the Naval installations could have caused this spotter a trip to the brig as this was just after Sep 11 and suspicions about everyone and everything were at their 'paranoidest'. So you can imagine the glee on my face when cabbing it back to the airport,there I come across this erstwhile ruler of the Indian Ocean's many hued sky.