A World in a Grain of Sand: Aero India 2007

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Aero India 2007

Thanks to Sid, landed up with VIP passes to Aero India 2007 and thus got my first view of the biennial show of Indian might. The hype surrounding the event was high, with Russia exhibiting the MiG-35 for the first time outside Russia, the US exhibiting the F-16 and the F-18 plus fighters like the Gripen, Sukhoi and a host of other planes. Also interesting was the pitch for the executive jets, something that corporate India would soon be catching up on.

The Canon S2 IS is not the best camera to shoot fast moving aircraft with, my EOS 30 with eye controlled focus and 4 fps would have been a much better bet - but picked up the S2 IS due to the convenience of shooting digital and having a 12X zoom with optical image stabilization.

Am not really familiar with fighter planes, and this being my first aero show, relied on Pradyot to guide me through most of the displays.

The F-16 proved a tough beast to photograph, with the plane disappearing from my vision by the time I have even managed to raise the camera to eye level. That in itself was impressive, till the commentator announced that the jet was flying at half its rated speed.

This was also the first time I saw the Surya Kirans display their formation flying skills, and it was pretty impressive to say the least.

Am not sure if I have identified the aircrafts below correctly, will rely on Pradyot and Sid to correct/complete the list.

The photos are not really that great, most of them are not in perfect focus. Considering that this is the first time I am covering any air show, will just have to correct all the mistakes next time around.