THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It was a lifelong desire and dream of Wing Commander N R Kanthy (Retd), the first student from Loyola School, Thiruvananthapuram, to join the Armed Forces, to position a fighter aircraft fuselage at his alma mater. A couple of years back he broached this subject to Air Marshal B Suresh, who too is an Old Boy of Loyola, and was the then Air Officer Commanding of the Southern Air Command, Thiruvananthapuram.
He readily agreed to do his best and that set the ball rolling. There was many a hurdle that they had to cross and finally in mid-2020, the Indian Air Force finally approved the allotment of a MIG 27 swing wing fighter to the Directorate of Tourism, Kerala. The Department was scouting for a good location to display the aircraft when they zeroed in on Sreekariyam - Aakulam Road which had recently been christened, “Air Force Road”.
Loyola School was approached and they agreed and gave an undertaking to the government to provide a suitable spot on AF Road and to bear the erection charges as well as its future maintenance. Kanthy, who is currently based in Greater Noida, told TNIE that the location has great visibility for the general public and the whole idea is to motivate young minds in the area to join the Air Force.
“Unfortunately, the pandemic struck and the process got further delayed. However, thanks to timely monitoring and a bit of push when required, the aircraft which was at a base in West Bengal was finally dismantled and made ready for transportation. The exercise was a logistics nightmare as huge trailers, cranes and specialised manpower were all required. However all this came together and by end of February - early March, the aircraft reached the school.”, said Sasthamangalam native Kanthy.
He also informed that the aircraft is a variable wing sweep ground-attack aircraft, originally built by the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau in the Soviet Union and later manufactured under licence in India by Hindustan Aeronautics as the Bahadur (“Valiant”). It is based on the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 fighter aircraft, but optimised for air-to-ground attack. Commissioned in the IAF in 1985, the MiG-27 remained an integral part of the forces’ combat strength which was extensively used during the Kargil war.
A number of Loyolaites have had the honour of flying the MIG 27 and they include, among others, Air Marshal B Suresh (Retd), Air Marshal T D Joseph and Gp Capt Ranjit Panicker. But Grp Captains Paul Jacob (Retd) and Ayyappan Radhakrishnan (Retd) and Air Marshal T D Joseph have the unique distinction of having flown the TS 575 MIG 27 displayed at the Loyola School.
“This is indeed a proud moment for the school which is celebrating its diamond jubilee this year. The final work on the installation is still in progress where landscaping work is currently going on. We have contributed 70 plus officers to the Armed Forces,” said P T Joseph, Principal of school.