BENGALURU: The audience at Aero India is not just awestruck by the scintillating aerobatic display of aircraft but also by the flares released from them while performing daredevil stunts.
While the audience knows all about the aircraft performing the maneuvers, not many know who makes the flares released by the metal birds. The flares released from the popular Surya Kiran pilots from their Hawk MK-132, or the Sarang’s HAL Dhruv or the Tejas, are made by a team of special scientists in the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) unit in Pune.
“The initial use of flares started as a defence mechanism or a warfare tactic. It was introduced in display sorties two decades back, and since then, there has been no looking back. The size of the flares in aircraft depends upon their size and shape.
They can be used in all types of aircraft. Each of them has special pods where they are fixed and released,” a DRDO scientist explained. He added that a separate flare is released for each aerial act, and so each aircraft carries 100s-1000s depending upon the type of operation.
They can weigh anything between 100- 770 grams and are made by the High Energy Material Research Lab (HEMRL) in DRDO in Pune.
Not wanting to divulge the material used in making the flares, the scientist assured that eco-friendly, military-grade dye is used for the colours orange and green. “Everything is indigenously made, and the scientists are now pros in making them. They are producing not less than a thousand a day. They are also used in bird scare operations. Work is also on to upgrade them and have improvised versions from the existing 200 mm- 50 mm variants,” the scientist said.