The Tilpat Years

B-24 Liberator of No.5 Squadron Indian Air Force which type dropped heavy bombs over the Tilpat range in 1954.

he rst re power demonstration

conducted by the Indian Air Force
was almost exactly nearly 60 years
ago, on 21 July 1953 at the Tilpat range,
located at 2827N 7721E, in Faridabad
District, 14 miles south from Delhi. The
area then consisted of some 500 acres of
uninhabited wooded and scrub land and,
considering its proximity to the capital
city of India, was a rather bold location
for this purpose but the IAF continued to
use the range till encroachments by ever
expanding townships made it dangerous to
continue. In fact, at one such Show, a stick
of 1000 lb bombs dropped by a Canberra
nearly overshot the designated target.
The last air power demonstration at
the Tilpat ring range was on 18 March
1989 and after that, this event has been
moved south to Pokhran in the Rajasthan
desert, located at 26.92N 71.92E, where
the endless desert wastes are used by
the Indian Army and Air Force to re
at will (also not far from the site where
the countrys nuclear weapon tests have
taken place).
However, six decades ago, at the
very rst re power demonstration in
100

1953, the IAFs piston-engined Spitres,

Tempests and Liberators red cannon,
launched rockets and dropped bombs
with aplomb. The big Show was a year
later when the Indian Air Force marked
its coming of age on 1 April 1954 and
the taking over of Air Marshal Subroto
Mukerjee as rst Indian C-in-C of the
IAF. The climax was the fire power
demonstration at Tilpat range. A large
crowd of over 50,000 witnessed this
and Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru,
who inaugurated the function, ew in
by a Sikorsky S-55 helicopter, rst to be
acquired by the IAF. However, not all
VVIPs made it their as many were stuck
in the humungous trafc jams along the
roads and remained stuck there till the
evening.
The 1954 Show began with
pyrotechnics (coloured ares) red and
over 100 aircraft taking part, the first
being 21 Harvards (one for each year of
the IAF), in a formation marking the letters
IAF in the sky. Thereafter came C-47
Dakotas, ying in formations of three to
drop paratroopers. The re power part
had the IAFs newly acquired Dassault

VAYU

Ouragans ring rockets, Vampires strang

with cannon and B-24 Liberators dropping
heavy bombs.
21 years later, on 29 November 1975,
the Indian Air Force once again carried
out a re power demonstration at Tilpat,
when then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi
also brought her grandson along (see photo
from Vayus archives). Air Chief Marshal
OP Mehra was Chief and Air Marshal
H Moolgavkar AOC-in-C Western Air
Command. Vayu was present to le an onthe-spot report and the following excepts
are from Vayus issue of December 1975.
As succinctly put by Air Marshal
H Moolgavkar, AOC-in-C Western Air
Command in his introduction speech,
the Fire Power Demonstration was a
relatively limited show, for only the
enemy had the monopoly of witnessing the
real operations !
Unlike previous occasions, the
Demonstration on 29 November 1975
was marked by absence of the hundreds of
thousands of enthused viewers, jamming
the Delhi-Mathura approach roads to
Tilpat and creating hazards of trafc and
safety. The very exclusive and limited