Journalism of Courage
The INS Shivajis silver jubilee celebrations to mark its Naval Engineering Course was marked by an aerobatic display by ‘Sagar Pawan’,the naval formation aerobatic team that is based out of Goa.
Four Kiran aircrafts presented an aerial display for over 2,000 spectators. Vice Admiral Ganesh Mahadevan,the Chief of Materiel was the chief guest. The Sagar Pawan aerobatic team performed several synchronised formation aerobatics,the INS Shivaji said in a press release.
Indian Navy Air Squadron 551,which flies the Sagar Pawan,is one of the oldest squadron of the Navy – formed in 1958 and has flown Vampires and Sea Hawks. Now it flies the indigenous Kiran aircraft.
The Kiran Mark II that the team flew is a fighter trainer aircraft with additional roles of limited Close Air Support and Low Intensity Conflict Operations,the release said.
On Saturday at the INS Shivaji,the team put up displays like the “Tango” and Yankee formations in which the team members flew in positions depicting the letters “T” and Y.
Thereafter the team demonstrated a steep turn in Diamond formation. A key maneuver was the Shadow Break in which the team approached the audience from the front and in a spilt second broke off in four different directions.
Commander Yashwant Karkare is the Commanding Officer of the INAS 551. The Indian Navy is one of the two in the world that have active performing fixed wing formation aerobatic teams. The other one is the US Navy which flies the Blue Angles,the release added.
