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Sulur Airbase

The Sulur Airbase near the textile town of Coimbatore is operational since 1940. Initially, it was a naval station and later transformed into an Air Force facility. The construction of the Sulur airbase was started by the Royal Navy and the air field was commissioned in 1942-43, during World War II. The base was placed under the South East Asian Command. During the August Movement of 1942, the base bore the brunt and was burned down. Later, it became operational as HMS Vairi in 1945 and Hellcats, Barracudas and Sea Otters of Royal Navy operated detachments from here. Royal Indian Air Force also operated from Sulur during this period.

After World War II, the Indian Army used a part of airfield and number of hangars as MT Vehicle Park. Post-Independence, the Indian Navy established INS Hansa to operate Hawker Sea Hawks. The liberation of Goa saw INS Hansa being shifted to Goa's Dabolim airfield. (Interestingly, to this day, a small Aircraft and Engine Holding Unit continues to be housed at Sulur.)

In 1956, the air field was taken over by the IAF to set up a Care and Maintenance Unit. It was re-designated as Aircraft Storage Unit under Maintenance Command in 1957 and later renamed as ‘Air Force Storage Depot.’ In April 1966, the Air Force Storage Depot was re-designated as 5 Base Repair Depot and assigned the task of repair and overhaul of Gnat aircraft. 33 Equipment Depot too was established at Sulur in 1967 for providing equipment support to 5 BRD but later merged with 5 BRD.

President Ramnath Kovind presented colours to two of the Indian Air Force Units 04 March 2019 at a function at Sulur Base near Coimbatore. The 5-Base Repair Depot functioning in the Sulur facility and the training Center at Hakimpet near Hyderabad were presented the Colours in recognition of their outstanding performances. The 5-Base Repair Depot along with a few other squadrons of the Air Force and the Sarang helicopter display team have made Sulur their base.

The #5 depot located at Sulur, Coimbatore is engaged in Manufacture/Repair of modification kits, overhaul, repair and calibration of general purpose and special types of testers (both mechanical and electrical/electronics type). Indigenisation of spares required for overhauling of western origin aircraft like Avro, Dornier, Jaguar, Microlight and spares of CBLS 200 1A (Carrier Bomb Light Stores) used in MiG variants and Jaguar.

Coimbatore district is served by the Coimbatore International Airport at Coimbatore. The Coimbatore International Airport caters to domestic flights to major Indian cities like Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and international flights to Sharjah and Singapore. Its runway is 9,760 feet (2,970 m) in length and is capable of handling wide-bodied and "fat-bellied" aircraft used for international flights. Sulur Air Force Station, located at Kangayampalayam near the periphery of the city, is an air base of the Indian Air Force.

Coimbatore District is one of the districts of the state of Tamil Nadu in India. The headquarters of the district is Coimbatore city. It is located in the western part of the state in the Kongu region. Coimbatore lies at 11°1'6?N 76°58'21?E in at 411 meters (1349 ft) above sea level. It is bounded by Palakkad district of Kerala on the west and by Idukki district of Kerala in the South. Coimbatore shares its borders with Tirupur in the East and Nilgiris in the North. A small portion of Erode district shares the border near Puliampatti in the North East. It is about 500Kms away from Chennai and 335Kms from IT City, Bangalore. The district has spread over 4,723 km2 (1,824 sq mi).

According to 2011 census, Coimbatore district had a population of 3,458,045 with a sex-ratio of 1,000 females for every 1,000 males, much above the national average of 929.[32] A total of 319,332 were under the age of six, constituting 163,230 males and 156,102 females. The average literacy of the district was 83.98%.The district had a total of 958,035 households. There were a total of 1,567,950 workers: 75,411 cultivators, 201,351 main agricultural laborers, 44,582 in house hold industries, 1,121,908 other workers, 124,698 marginal workers, 4,806 marginal cultivators, 28,675 marginal agricultural laborers, 5,503 marginal workers in household industries and 85,714 other marginal workers. Tamil is the principal official language and Kongu Tamil, a variant of Tamil and English are widely spoken with a small proportion speaking Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada. Hindus formed the majority of the population at 90.08% followed by Muslims at 5.33%, Christians at 4.35% and others at 0.24%.