• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Suryakirans

The Suryakiransteam has a total of 13 pilots of whom only 9 are flying at any given time. The pilots are selected from the fighter stream of the IAF. Presently there are pilots with experience on the Mirage 2000, Jaguar, MiG-23 and MiG-27. All are experienced QFIs with about 1000 hrs of experience on the Kiran itself. Besides the pilots the team has an administrator of Adm Branch and a Kiran qualified technical officer. The administrator, other than looking after administrative requirement of the team, also does the job of commentator during public displays. The Technical Officer, the 'Spanner', who, along with fifty accomplished technicians has the onerous task of maintaining and servicing the Team's aircraft.

Formation Aerobatics has been a part of Indian Air Force aviation history ever since its nativity. Paucity of space prevents the exhaustive details of all those who have performed in Display Formation flying. The roots would trace down to even before 1964, when four Mysteres crowds over Delhi on Republic Day.

1982, the Golden Jubilee of the Indian Air force saw the inception of nine Hunter aircraft performing feats in the air. Calling themselves the 'Thunderbolts', they were painted deep blue with streaks of lightning passing all through. They performed through out the country.

The Hunters were eventually phased out and the indigenously manufactured Kiran MK Iis were tasked to stay in formation. In 1966 the team was christened 'SURYAKIRAN' and upgraded to a 6 aircraft status.

The nine aircraft take off in VICs of three and join up in close formation, maneuvering between speeds of 150 and 650 Kmph with their wing tips a mere 5 metres apart. The various profiles undertaken are a series of dynamic combinations resulting in constantly changing formations. This subjects the pilots to alternating 'g' forces between +6 to -1.5. Perfection comes only with practice and that is the reason why the team looks at each and every manoeuvre in detail on the ground. It is then flown and finally debriefed with the help of video recordings. Thus emerges the 15-20 min of aerial choreography of the pilots.

To perform all these hair raising manoeuvres requires tremendous concentration, grit and determination tot take the aircraft to the extremes of it's envelope.

The team has successfully enthralled crowds from Srinagar down to Trivandrum and even beyond to Sri Lanka.