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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

AI’s Maharaja smiles joyfully

All 30 grounded aircrafts now fly Mumbai : Air India’s Maharaja is all pleased as punch at 80. After years of huge costs and efforts, the last of the grounded 30 aircraft – inherited by the Tata Group during the privatization in Jan. 2022 – is now resurrected fully and took to the skies gracefully on Monday.   The aircraft is the gleaming VT-ALL, a Boeing 777-300ER, that was gathering grime since February 2020, and becomes the final among the two-and-half dozen aircraft that have been revved...

AI’s Maharaja smiles joyfully

All 30 grounded aircrafts now fly Mumbai : Air India’s Maharaja is all pleased as punch at 80. After years of huge costs and efforts, the last of the grounded 30 aircraft – inherited by the Tata Group during the privatization in Jan. 2022 – is now resurrected fully and took to the skies gracefully on Monday.   The aircraft is the gleaming VT-ALL, a Boeing 777-300ER, that was gathering grime since February 2020, and becomes the final among the two-and-half dozen aircraft that have been revved up and revived in the past few years, AI official sources said.   It marked a symbolic milestone for Air India itself - founded in 1932 by the legendary Bharat Ratna J. R. R. Tata - which once ruled the roost and was India’s pride in the global skies.   Once renowned for its royal service with the iconic Maharaja welcoming fliers on board, in 1953 it was taken over by the government of India. After years of piling losses, ageing aircraft, decline in operations and standards – almost like a Maharaja turning a pauper - it returned to the Tata Group four years ago.   This time it was not just the aircraft, the brand and the deflated Maharaja coming into the large-hearted Tata Group stables, but a formidable challenge to ensure that the airline could regain its old glory and glitter. Of the total around 190 aircraft in its fleet were 30 – or 15 pc – that had been grounded and neglected for years.   At that time, the late Ratan N. Tata had directed that all these valuable aircraft must be revived as far as possible and join the fleet. Accordingly, the VT-ALL, languishing at Nagpur for nearly five years, was ‘hospitalized’ at the Air India Engineering Service Ltd., its MRO facility in May 2025.   New Avatar Then started a thorough, painstaking nose-to-tail restoration of an unprecedented scale, in which over 3000 critical components were replaced, over 4,000 maintenance tasks executed, besides key structural upgrades like the longeron modification, engines, auxiliary power units, avionics, hydraulics, landing gears and almost every vital system was rebuilt or replaced.   After the repairs, the old aircraft was reborn, under the gaze of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and technical assistance from Boeing, and the new ‘avatar’ jetliner emerged with the highest global safety standards.   The aircraft cleared all the rigorous checks, a successful test flight, earned the mandatory Airworthiness Review Certificate and then made its maiden commercial flight from Monday, March 16 – after a wait of six years.   Sturdy Fliers Created in 1946 to become an instant global icon, the Air India’s mascot Maharaja now sports a youthful and chic look, a welcome with folded hands, closed eyes, featuring a bejewelled turban, stylish jootis, and a textured kurta in Air India’s new colours. He is prominently visible at various touch-points in a flyer’s journey, such as First Class, exclusive lounges, and luxury products.   Today, he commands a mix fleet of around 190 narrow and wide-body Airbus and Boeing aircraft like : A319, A320, A320neo, A321, A321neo, A350-900 and B787-8, B787-9, B7770200LR, B-777-300ER. With the merger of Vistara and agreements signed for 10 A350 and 90 A320 aircraft, the Maharaja’s fleet is slated to soar to some 570 in the near future.

Winged Farewell

For more than six decades a needle-nosed silhouette has defined the Indian Air Force (IAF). The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 inducted in 1963 was a fixture of India’s military identity. Over 1,200 were acquired and for generations of pilots, their first brush with supersonic flight came at the controls of this Soviet workhorse. Today, as the IAF bids goodbye to the MiG-21 with a final ceremonial flight, the send-off marks the end of an era. It is also the beginning of a reckoning.


The MiG-21’s legacy is inextricably bound up with India’s modern military history. It was the hero of four conflicts with Pakistan, beginning with the 1965 war when India’s fledgling fleet of supersonic interceptors bested American-supplied Sabres. Its blistering climb rate, Mach-2 speed and nimble agility proved transformative in a region where air power was still rudimentary. Later, in 1971, the MiG-21 not only defended Indian skies but also strafed and bombed Pakistani positions, contributing to a decisive victory.


More than an instrument of war, the MiG-21 was virtually a classroom in the sky. Practically every IAF fighter pilot has trained on one variant or another. Over time the fleet expanded into a veritable alphabet of Soviet engineering - MiG-21s, 23s, 25s, 27s and 29s - that by 2006 made the Air Force jokingly known as the ‘MiG Air Force.’ The original, though, retained a mystique, being endlessly upgraded with new avionics, missiles and radars.


That versatility embodied the pragmatism of the IAF which stretched the jet’s utility far beyond the design expectations of its Russian makers. But longevity came at a price. By the 1990s, as airframes aged and the world moved on to stealth and multirole platforms, the MiG-21 increasingly looked like a relic. Its safety record deteriorated. More than 300 crashes over the decades scarred its reputation and gave rise to the chilling epithet of the ‘flying coffin.’


Yet to reduce its story to that unhappy nickname would be unjust. Few aircraft in aviation history have served so long, so widely or so faithfully.


The MiG-21 was both spear and shield for India. It also symbolised the Indo-Russian defence relationship, which has endured through ideological shifts, sanctions and strategic realignments.


The phasing out of the MiG-21 symbolizes a solemn moment of transition. The IAF is now pinning hopes on the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft to take up the mantle. If it succeeds, it will mark a strategic leap from dependency to self-reliance in military aviation.


The MiG-21 bows out with mixed emotions of pride, nostalgia and sorrow. It protected India’s skies in its most vulnerable decades, trained generations of aviators, and carried the tricolour into aerial duels that defined national memory.


Its final salute is also a reminder that sentimentality must not cloud sober assessment. Ageing platforms must give way to safer, more capable aircraft. The MiG-21 served India with distinction. Now the Tejas must prove it can do the same.

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