A DAKOTA FOR THE IAF
While the purchase of a squadron or two of a certain multi-role fighter continues to be dogged by controversy, another old favourite of the IAF has taken flight at no cost to the exchequer. In a quiet ceremony at the Akash Mess in New Delhi on February 13, Air Chief B.S. Dhanoa signed a deed accepting the generous gift of an airworthy Douglas ‘Dakota’ from veteran IAF transport pilot Air Commodore (retd) M.K. Chandrasekhar.
The vintage aircraft was, in fact, professionally restored over several years in the UK as a sentimental gesture by the NDA MP and tycoon Rajeev Chandrasekhar. Speaking on the occasion, he said, “The Dak was part of my childhood as my father flew it all over India and today I fulfil my dream of helping [him] donate a Dakota to the air force.” It was an exciting moment for the assembled veterans, given the significance of the Dakota as a workhorse of the IAF and of civil aviation from the 1940s well into the 1970s, including active duty in the 1971 Bangladesh war. When the ‘new’ (1948 vintage) plane arrives at the Hindon air base next month—after an epic journey involving six ‘hops’ through France, Greece, Egypt, Oman and Gujarat—it will join the IAF’s ‘vintage fleet’ as the only Dakota still flying in Asia. Adding historical resonance, the plane will bear the tail registration, VP-905, in commemoration of the first Dakota that carried Indian troops to Srinagar on October 27, 1947, at the start of India’s first war with Pakistan.
Perhaps that’s gilding the lily: nostalgia like everything else in this country is soon mired in politics. Overheard at the gifting event were conspiracy theorists invoking the old canard that VT or VP registrations are a ‘colonial’ mark of shame (a BJP MP has complained that ‘VT’ stands for ‘Viceroy Territory’). Others tweeted indignation over the fact that a previous government had rejected Chandrasekhar’s gift. Hopefully, such kvetching will soon be drowned out by the once familiar note of a ‘gooney bird’ rumbling through Indian skies again.