AIR FORCE

WORLD RECORDS

LIMCA RECORD HOLDERS

Air Marshal VK Bhatia PVSM, AVSM, VrC & Bar was the first Indian who dared a tandem skydiving jump in India at the age of 56 yrs. This daring feat was performed on 17 Sep 1999 at Agra airfield from an AN-32 aircraft.
Group Captain NK Prashar, JD AF Adv was the first to fly X-Air microlight on night on 15 Sep 2000 at Air Force Station Hindon. Subsequently on the same night Sqn Ldr MIK Reddy carried out a skydiving jump from X-Air Microlight.
Sqn Ldr Sanjay Thapar VM is the man of many firsts in the field of parachuting, two of his achievements are acknowledged as world records and seven others as National Records. He was the first Indian to introduction.
Sqn Ldr Jay Shankar is an officer from Admin branch and an adventure enthusiast. He is pursuing sports parachuting since 1990. He is a sports parachuting instructor without being a PJI. He has 602 jumps to his credit. For a non-professional paratrooper this number is highly creditable.
Sqn Ldr MIK Reddy is a NDA graduate and an adventure freak. He is specialist in watersports, parasailing and skydiving. He has over 780 skydiving jumps to his credit, the highest for a non PJI in the Air Force. He has also conducted many basic skydiving courses and d

emonstrations independently. He is also the first to carry out a jump from X-Air Microlight at night.
Sqn Ldr RC Tripathi. A pioneer of Adventure sports, specialist in parachuting, mountaineering and water sports. As on date he has 1040 jumps. He is the first to jump from an X-Air microlight on 04 Apr 2001 at Air Force Station Hindon. Microlight was flown by Gp Capt NK Prashar, JD AF Adv.
Sqn Ldr Vasant Raj and Flt Lt Bhawana Mane. Both are helicopter pilots and the first couple in the Air Force to skydiving together on 30 May 2000 at National Defence Academy, Pune.
Flt Lt Kamal Singh Oberh. A young parachute jump instructor, made a jump over South Pole on 01 Jan 2000 and earned the distinction of being the first Indian to perform this daring feat.
Flt Lt KB Samyal and Flt Lt Kopal Gupta. Flt Lt Samyal is a professional parachute jump instructor at Paratroopers Training School. His wife Flt Lt Kopal Gupta is a logistic officer at AF Stn Agra. Both Samyal and Kopal became the first couple to do Relative Work on 04 Oct 2000 during the Subroto Cup Football finals at Ambedkar Stadium, New Delhi. As on date Flt Lt Samyal has over 350 jumps to his credit whereas Flt Lt Kopal has 220 jumps to her credit.
In addition, there are few other Air Force personnel, who have also set records and earned their names in Limca Book of Records one being a six man Relative Work by PTS under the leadership of Wg Cdr HN Bhagwat in Aug 2000.

The Air Force ensign, different from the Air Force Colours, is blue in colour, containing the National Flag in the first quadrant and a roundel consisting of the colours of the National Flag i.e. saffron, white and green in the centre. This ensign was adopted in 1951 .

The IAF Motto

The Motto of Indian Air Force has been taken from eleventh chapter of the Gita, the Discourse given by Lord Krishna to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra during the Great War of Mahabharata. The Lord is showing His Supreme Divine form to Arjuna and the great form of the Lord is reaching the sky with glory, evoking fear and loss of self-control in the mind of Arjuna.The Indian Air Force, similarly, aims to overwhelm the adversaries with application of aerospace power in defence of the nation.

Lord, seeing your form �Touching the Sky With Glory�, effulgent, multi-coloured, having its mouth wide open and possessing large flaming eyes, I, with my innermost self frightened, have lost self-control and find no peace.

The IAF Crest

Crests have been used for the purpose of recognition and distinguishing formations or Units. They are symbols and source of inspiration and encouragement for the soldiers. The Air Force has adopted various crests for the commands, Squardron and the other establishments. The Crests in the Indian Air Force comprises of a standard frame. The central portion of the frame contains the individual formation sign with a motto shown in the scroll at the foot of the frame. The unit sign is drawn inside a circle of 3 � inches diameter. The name of the formation of the units is shown in the upper half of the circle while Bhartiya Vayu Sena inscribed in the lower half. The crest and the motto are designed based on the role of the formation. The Crest is approved by the President of India and is of great historical and sentimental value. The Crest is normally presented by the AOsC-in-C at ceremonial parades. The importance of the crest can be understood from the fact that the movement of the crest from one place to other is done only by hand of an officer.

e tandem skydiving in the Air Force.

FIGHTERS