Air Force Museum’s MiG-21, Mi-8 helicopter, missiles wow all

Nagpur: The Air Force Museum was opened to the public by the headquarters maintenance command at Vayusena Nagar on Friday. Located at the Dabha gate of the maintenance command, it was inaugurated by the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C), Air Marshal VK Garg.
The museum, which is open to the public for a very nominal charge, features a host of equipment used in the Air Force. It is open every day of the week except Tuesday and other gazetted holidays.
With a MiG-21 fighter aircraft, Mi-8 helicopter, and a Pechora missile on display at the entrance, the museum also showcases a variety of equipment, including items of Russian origin and also indigenous components.
A section on the history of the maintenance command is also on display at the museum. The maintenance command was formed at Kanpur on Jan 26, 1955, with Air Vice Marshal Harjinder Singh as its first AOC-in-C.
At that time, the only base repair depot (BRD) existed at Kanpur, along with a repair and manufacturing depot. As Kanpur alone could not absorb the activities, Nagpur was eventually selected as the new site for setting up the command's headquarters, says a note on display at the museum. The maintenance command came up at Nagpur on Aug 15, 1965 after the foundation stone was laid in April 1964.
The second AOC-in-C of the maintenance command was Air Vice Marshal OP Mehra, who also founded the setup at Nagpur. He later went on to become the Chief of Air Staff.