PAF AIRCRAFTS COLLECTION

The painting shows flying instructor Flight Lieutenant R.L. Jebb waving off Flight Cadet M. Sadruddin on his first solo after just three hours and fifteen minutes of instruction (against the usual 10-15 hours). This early evidence of his naturally flying ability led to Sadruddin’s selection for training at Britain’s premier flying institution at RAF Cranwell. Thus began the long and brilliant career of the Air Vice-Marshal during which he continued to build his reputation as not only the PAF’s top aerial marksman (1960) but also a highly successful commander of 3 fighter squadrons, 1 fighter wing and two air bases. He was chosen to induct the PAF’s first two supersonic fighters (the F-104 and the F-6/Mig-19) and landed – in 1961 and 1965 – the first plane of each type in Pakistan, both at PAF Base Sargodha (now Mushaf). In addition to commanding the UAE Air Force for three years he held, in the PAF, several senior command and staff appointments before retiring as the AOC, Air Defence Command.

Although both the F-6 and the F-86E had reasonable capabilities in the close support role, there was a need to regain the medium range day/night strike power which had been shared by the F-86F and the B-57 until 1967. There was also the lingering gap in night air defence. To fulfill these requirements, the PAF turned to the French Mirage fighter bomber series. The induction started in 1968 with Mirage III strike interceptors. In the 1971 War, these aircraft were effectively used for day and night air defence as well as offensive roles. The painting shows the first batch of Mirages arriving overhead the Karachi coast line.

Pakistan Army’s prestigious Command and Staff College (established 1907) at Quetta regularly held firepower demonstrations every year, showing the effectiveness of different ground-and air-delivered weapons for its students, some of them from foreign countries. The painting shows a scene from one such display in 1963 where the PAF’s F-86 and F-104 aircraft participated. At a firing range located on the western hills of the Quetta valley, F-86 fighter-bombers have already fired different types of ordnance for the benefit of students and directing staff, visible on a ridge that provides them the best view. The PAF demo ends with a pair of F-104s adding to the students’ experience a rare display of what fighter jets flying faster than sound look and sound like to observers on the ground - rare because supersonic flights are not permitted over populated areas owing to the sonic booms shattering most types of window panes and causing other property damage. (For this display, the windows of the College buses and cars have been wound down for the same reason). About thirty seconds before the arrival of the first F-104, the air force Range Safety Officer draws the spectators’ attention on loud speakers to a very fast and smoky trail silently approaching along their low horizon, then assuming the silvery shape of the Starfighter. Riveted eyes follow the soundless F-104, flown by Flight Lieutenant Hakimullah as he flashes past directly in front of them at 900 mph but no jet roar is as yet heard; then comes the loud bang of the shock wave attached behind his plane as the pilot climbs away. Within seconds the College students are asked to focus on another black dot rapidly approaching from the opposite direction. Seconds later, this Starfighter also flown at Mach 1.2 (900 mph) by the Sargodha wing leader, Wing Commander M. Sadruddin, arrives just as silently and the sonic boom he creates is also heard only after he has gone well past the observers. Some of the spectators were also able to pick out the faintly visible shock cones around the two Starfighters’ fuselages; and everyone saw the continuous line of dust kicked up by the shock waves travelling along the ground directly below the two F-104s. The speed of 900 mph was ideal for showing supersonic flight near the ground. The F-104 was actually capable of flying at 1550 mph (Mach 2.3).

The Handley Page Halifax bombers first joined Britain’s Royal Air Force in 1941, and were extensively used for attacking targets in Germany throughout World War II. In 1949, Pakistan purchased 8 ex-RAF Halifax B-VIs to equip No.12 Squadron, the PAF’s first bomber / transport unit. The PAF Halifaxes were powered by four Hercules-100 engines, and could drop a bomb load of 14,500 Ibs on targets 1,500 miles away, flying at 270 mph. Before its short career in the PAF ended four years later, the Halifax flew many important supply drop missions in support of the Kashmir operations. Because of their age and technology, however, the reliability of the Halifaxes was not high, and all had to be prematurely retired from the PAF by 1954. It was on one of these Bombers in August 1951 that a technical malfunction forced the pilot to make a controlled crash landing when one of its main landing wheels jammed in the partially extended position. For more than three hours the crew attempted without success to lower the stuck wheel. Eventually the decision was made to crash-land the bomber. On the ground, the alerted crash crew and many base personnel at RPAF Station, Risalpur watched anxiously as lumbering bomber came in for landing. It touched down with nearly empty fuel tanks, rolled straight for some length of the grass runway, then began a cartwheel that nearly reversed its direction by 180 degrees, as the fuselage fractured at about midpoint. Due to thorough pre-crash preparation, and briefing by the aircraft commander, all crew members evacuated the Halifax without injury.

Among the earliest equipment of the Pakistan Air Force, when it came into existence in 1947 after partition, were the few Dauglas C-47 Dakotas transferred from the former Royal Indian Air Force. These were used to start the crucial Valley Flights to Pakistani outposts in Azad Kashmir. The Dakota retired from the PAF in 1955.

Nearly one hundred of the PAF’s F-86s were operating from Karachi’s Mauripur (now Masroor) air base in the late 1950s. In the tightly packed daily flying routine of the Sabre squadrons during working hours, there was hardly any opportunity to throw any no-holds-barred gauntlets at worthy opponents for “1 vs. 1” dog fights. Such windows opened only in the afternoons that were reserved for test flights and characterised by fewer watchful eyes at the air base. With less crowded skies, this part of the day was spent in taking up a constant flow of F-86s that had just come out of scheduled maintenance or repairs. After the Sabres passed the checklisted tests, pairs of the experienced test pilots had usually enough fuel remaining to head for an agreed rendezvous to test their own mettle in mock combat. Among the Sabre pilots who thus honed their personal skills, two notable ones are shown here in their 14 Squadron planes. Artist Hussaini chose to freeze the highly dynamic action just as the tightly wrenching dog fight between Flight Lieutenants M. M. Alam (front) and Hameed Anwer is nearing a stalemate. The two had long been friends and intense rivals, as all fighter pilots tend to be at young age. Both were already recognised in the PAF for their professional devotion and outstanding piloting skills but each had yet to make history in the challenges that lay ahead. Within half a decade, one was destined to become the top scoring pilot of the PAF in 1965 and the other would fly the proud flag of the PAF to distant lands - first in the UK’s RAF, and then for many years in Jordan and other Arab countries to teach the art of air combat to young pilots. At the time depicted in this painting, however, young Alam and Anwar are doggedly canopy-to-canopy, scissoring hard, barely aware of their diminishing safety margins above the Arabian Sea and each intent on getting behind the other in the unarguably astern position that would persuade the other to concede defeat. As usually happened in their frequent duels, this time too it was a draw.

During the 1971 War, different types of fighters from some friendly countries were temporarily transferred to the PAF. Of these groups, a formation of three F-5As with PAF markings are shown here entering the Pakistani territory.

Off the coast of Karachi on a winter day, four F-86 Sabres join up in a tight “Finger Four” formation as they begin their climb for practising aerobatic manoeuvres. Later in the day they would fly again, with their twelve other colleagues, in a single body of sixteen “Falcons” – the PAF’s aerobatics demonstration team – in preparation for a history-making public display on the 2nd of February. Each Sabre pilot is from a different squadron, as evidenced by the distinctive colours of his ‘checkerboard’ nose. From left to right these are: No.16, 14, 5 and 15. This mission is being led by Flight Lieutenant Hameed Anwar from No.14 Squadron.

As gusting winds herald a thunderstorm that could be seen brewing on the eastern horizon, three DH-82 Tigermoths join up with the leader after their hurried take of from Mianwali’s dusty air strip. From the large assets of the Royal Indian Air Force (RIAF), Pakistan’s share came to just seven DH-82s. Departing on September 12 from RIAF Station Jodhpur (India), the primary trainers were cleared to fly to Risalpur in the new country, stopping to refuel at Nawabshah, Jacobabad, Multan and Mianwali. The light, cloth-and-wood machines could hardly survive a storm without any protective cover at Mianwali. The formation leader, Flying Oficer Zafar A. Chaudhry (twenty five years later the Chief of the Air Staff ), decided it was best to head quickly to his destination-Risalpur-despite some misgivings about the health of the Tigermoth engines. Three days earlier, one of the seven Moths had to force-land in the desert when its engine seized after taking of from Jacobabad. Inspections by Pakistani technicians after this incident revealed that sugar had been added to the aircraft fuel tanks by unknown saboteurs at Jodhpur. Without any technical facilities the pioneers worked hard at Mianwali, cleaning and flushing the fuel tanks and filters as best as they could. After ground-running the engines the technicians gave a tentative thumbs-up for the last leg of the journey. Escaping gale force winds, the four Tigermoths, still wearing the colours of the RIAF, arrived at the future Air Force Academy to be received by cheering airmen. The seven crews who manned the four trainers on that fateful day were: Pilots

Over the village of Khalsapur – twelve miles southeast of the PAF’s Risalewala Air Base – an SU-7 of the IAF explodes under a sidewinder impact. The SU-7 pilot, Flight Lieutenant Ramesh Gulabrao Kadam of the IAF’s Tactics and Combat Development Establishment does not survive. In the pursuing F-6 is Wing Commander Sayyed Manzoor-ul-Hassan Hashmi, the Commander of No.23 Squadron. Squadron Leader Samiullah Khan conducted this low-level interception from Kirana radar.

No. 11 Squadron, equipped with Supermarine Attacker was the first jet squadron of Pakistan. Thirty-Six Attackers (FB.l model) were inducted in the RPAF from January 1951 and all delivered by May 1952. The Attacker was airframe-limited to 505 KIAS (or Mach 0.78) against the Fury’s 425 KIAS. With the sweeping modernisation of the Air Force in the mid-1950s, this odd and only jet fighter with a tail wheel (the other being the reconnaissance U-2) was prematurely retired in 1956. The scene for this painting by Hussaini occurred during the RPAF’s first major exercise involving both jet and piston-engined fighters. The wargame was named Exercise “November Handicap”, and the Peshawar-based Fighter-Bomber Wing with its 5, 9 and 14 Squadrons (all equipped with Hawker Fury FB.50s) flew out eastward to operate from different MOBs and FOBs. To give both the ‘enemy’ and ‘friendly’ forces a feel for what it was like to have jets on its side, No. 11 Squadron’s Attackers, led by Squadron Leader Fuad Shahid (“F.S.”) Hussain switched sides half way through the exercise, operating first as part of the Red Force, then Blue, from Sargodha FOB and after that from Chaklala MOB. The painting shows two Furies of No. 14 Squadron manoeuvring against “F.S.”— with easily predictable results. In the two roles, this exceptionally gifted Pakistani pilot demonstrated his leadership and piloting skills with the natural ease of a grand master. (As a Flight Lieutenant a few years before, he had set an air-to-air gunnery record while doing his Pilot Attack Instructor’s course at Britain’s Central Gunnery School at RAF, Leconfield). During the exercise, “F.S.” was frequently seen with intensely attentive pilots of both Fury and Attacker fighters, teaching them the strengths and weaknesses of the two platforms. The propeller spinners of Nos. 5, 9 and 14 Squadrons were painted blue, red and black, and the Furies of all three squadrons could not escape coming under the gunsight reticule of “F.S.” Personal scores mattered little to “F.S.”, but as seen in the painting, his proud pilots had made sure that their CO’s cine camera-based ‘kills’ were painted on the side of his Attacker. Before his very untimely and greatly mourned death (from Diabetes) at a young age, Air Commodore Fuad Shahid Hussain, the PAF’s most admired role model, had held the office of ACAS (Operations).