Two Indian Air Force Ajeets at Air Force Station Ambala in October 1990

[Basilisk]

The Indian Air Force performed a 10-ship formation in mid-October 1990 containing the 10 different combat jets in service at the time and flew two Ajeets from their home base Kalaikunda in West Bengal all the way to Ambala Air Force station close to the Pakistan border for one of them to participate in this 10-ship formation!

 

The HAL Ajeet was a derivative of the Folland Gnat and No.2 Squadron "Winged Arrows" was the last squadron flying the type until April 1991 - so I was very lucky seeing the type still in action. When delivered from HAL, the Ajeet was in a bare-metal finish as was the case with E1974.

 

 

 

 

In flight as seen from an Antonov An-32.

 

 

No crew ladder needed to get of the Ajeet! After all, the saying goes that the Gnat/Ajeet was the only combat jet you strapped on and not in...

 

The second example at Ambala was camouflaged - or what was left of it! It doesn't look to be factory applied as all the stencils are masked out. I am not sure why the No.2 Squadron batch on this aircraft was yellow and not white. Maybe the squadron had two flights? E1996 flew originally with No.18 Squadron "Flying Bullets" until 1989 after which it transferred to No.2 Squadron and the letters Flying and Bullets are still visible in front and after the yellow circle. Also of interest is the location of the blade antenna which is located behind the cockpit on E1996 and below the nose on E1974.

 

 

 

 

And together with Ajeet E1051 from the Frozen tear' War Memorial in the background and as far as I know, E1051 is still there today.

 

Fortunately, the opportunity presented itself to take some in flight pictures of the pair from a Jaguar IB flying up north to the Himalayan foothills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And together with another "classic" British jet.

 

The whereabouts of E1974 is unknown, but there is an E1996 on display at Tejgaon in Bangladesh which could be the same aircraft I photographed in 1990.

 

If you don't have enough by now, there are more Ajeet pictures in my flickr Album. I was able to visit Kalaikunda Air Force station six weeks later and will cover that event in Part 2.

 

Thanks for looking and I hope these pictures are of interest to some.
Cheers, Peter

Edited December 22, 2024 by Basilisk
corrected location

[Britman]

Superb, thank you for sharing.

 

Keith 

[Karearea]

These are brilliant- I’d seen the 7th photo down of E1974 floating around elsewhere and had been planning on building it from the Special Hobby kit for the Asia Group Build, although life has since got in the way.
 

Your photos are incredible and have rekindled my enthusiasm for the subject. Thank you for sharing!

[RidgeRunner]

Absolutely stunning, Peter!

[exdraken]

incredible photos! a real time travelling post! 

 

 

[Duncan B]

Fantastic photos once again. 

 

Duncan B

[modelling minion]

Absolutely superb pictures, the camouflaged aircraft would be great to replicate in model form. Thanks for sharing them.

[Latinbear]

Brilliant images of rare beasts! Thank you for sharing them. 

[HOUSTON]

Ah What BEAUTIFUL images from the Homeland.

 

Thank you for sharing these Outstanding  And AMAZING  photographs. 

Many many thanks for posting and sharing them.

[Basilisk]

Thank you all, and I am glad you like them.

 

On 10/18/2024 at 8:17 PM, Karearea said:

These are brilliant- I’d seen the 7th photo down of E1974 floating around elsewhere and had been planning on building it from the Special Hobby kit for the Asia Group Build, although life has since got in the way.
 

Your photos are incredible and have rekindled my enthusiasm for the subject. Thank you for sharing!

So hopefully your Ajeet build will be completed one day. Several of these pictures had been published during the 90s in various publications and some did end up on the web.

Cheers, Peter