The Indian Air Force’s Surya Kiran Aerobatics Team (SKAT) had adorned an air show at the skies of Guwahati with rainbow colours and delighted the audience at Lachit Ghat with their daredevilry hundreds of metres above the ground on Tuesday (September 27) morning.
“Was witness to a stupendous show by IAF’s Surya Kiran Aerobatic Team in their Hawk Mk 132s over Lachit Ghat, Guwahati in presence of Hon First Lady of Assam Smt Prem Mukhi ji. My gratitude to @IAF_MCC for organising this beautiful event in Guwahati,” CM Sarma stated.
The IAF aerobatics team was founded in 1996 and is part of the Air Force’s 52nd Squadron. Since then, the crew has given additional demonstrations, generally with nine planes. The air show was held largely to inspire kids and to showcase the flying abilities of the Air Force’s ace pilots. The Surya Kiran aerobatic squad is also known as the IAF Ambassadors.
The team is unique in the fact that it is one of only nine aircraft formation Aerobatic teams in the world. Since then, the crew has conducted additional demonstrations, generally with nine planes. Until 2011, the squadron was made up of HAL HJT-16 Kiran Mk.2 military trainer planes and was headquartered at Bidar Air Force Station in Karnataka. The team was disbanded in February 2011 and re-established in 2017 with Hawk Mk-132 planes.
The Hawk Mk132 is designed by British Aerospace and manufactured in India by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. On September 18, the team left Puri with a breathtaking air performance at Blue Flag Beach in the holy city. The airshow was conducted by a fleet of nine aircraft hovering over the Puri skies.
For almost 25 minutes, nine pilots performed some appealing patterns like flying inverted, plunging, and climbing in an aerial dance by the aircraft.
A swarm of people flocked to Blue Flag Beach to watch the IAF team’s daredevilry. The aerobatic team performed a sequence of loops, barrel rolls, and other amazing aerial manoeuvres while streaking across the blue skies with blazing contrails just 500 feet above the earth.