(Popularly known as the ‘Citizens’ Air Force’ or the ‘Weekend Flyers’)
Three categories of Reserves to the Indian Air Force were set up in pursuance of the Reserve & Auxiliary Air Force Act - August 1952. This Act was passed by the parliament on 14 August 1952 and received president’s assent five days later.
The first category of Reserve was known as the Regular Reserves. As the name implies, it comprised officers and airmen who at one time or the other served in the regular Air Force and were out of service on release of retirement.
The second type of Reserves was known as the Air Defence Reserves. It consisted of all technical and flying personnel associated with aviation in the country, but not directly connected with the regular Air Force. This force had General Duty (Pilots and Navigators) and Ground Duty officers and technical personnel. The Act made it obligatory for all citizens who held qualifications, either as aircrew or as aeronautical engineers, to register themselves by 30 April 1956. Civil Aviation from which source the members of this category of Reserves were drawn was nationalized and therefore became automatically complimentary to the Air Force under the Act.
The third type was the Auxiliary Air Force. It was an exact counterpart of the Regular Air Force as the Territorial Army to the Regular Army. This Citizens’ Air Force as it was popularly called provided flying and technical training so that, apart from the benefit the members may derive from military aviation, they can, in a national emergency, contribute their bit in defending the country.
The Auxiliary Air Force was composed of squadrons located at major towns of the country. Apart from a small number of a regular Air Force officers and airmen, to be employed on instructional duties, these squadrons were manned entirely by civilian personnel. Drawn from amongst the permanent residents of the city or locality, the members of these squadrons continued to follow their normal professions.
Seven Auxiliary Air Force Squadrons were raised during the early fifties namely:-
- No. 51 Squadron, Safdarjang, New Delhi
- No. 52 Squadron, Juhu, Bombay
- No. 53 Squadron, Meenambakam, Madras
- No. 54 Squadron, Manauri, Allahabad
- No. 55 Squadron, Barrack pore, Calcutta
- No. 56 Squadron, Bhubaneshwar
- No. 57 Squadron, Chandigarh
These squadrons were equipped with the HAL-designed HT-2 trainer - officially introduced into service on 10 January 1955 - and the Harvard, although Vampire FB Mk. 52s were added in 1959.
Recruitment was open to all Indian national on part time basis from airmen to a fighter pilot. It immediately caught the imagination of entire nation especially of the technicians and civilian pilots flying with various commercial airlines. Many serving Regular Air Force pilots even left to join this part time force. The part time nature was a win win situation for our country in terms of saving a huge amount of money which otherwise, would have been spent in training fresh pilots. For commercial pilots, it was merely a conversion to military aviation at a very minimal cost.
Training was so devised as not to interfere as far as possible, with the normal profession or work of the trainees. It included an annual training camp of about four weeks, during which squadrons used to exercise in their normal role. After successfully completing their general and flying training on basic and advanced trainer aircraft, the pupil pilots were awarded the coveted ‘Air Force Wings’. Similarly the airmen trainees used to become full fledged tradesmen after successful completion of their technical ground training. The members of the Auxiliary Air Force were provided with a uniform, identical to that of the regular Air Force but with a distinguishing Auxiliary badge.
Members were not liable to be transferred from one squadron to another due to their civil professions. The Auxiliary Air Force provided an ideal platform to the youth of our country to augment country’s growing air power by serving as an Active Air Force Reserve along with their civil professions.
A Central Advisory Committee under the chairmanship of Minister of Defence, Government of India was set up under the Reserve and Auxiliary Air Force Act to advise the Government of India on all matters concerning the Auxiliary Air Force and how to make it more popular and effective?
Shortly after the war with China in 1962, a decision was taken to convert the Auxiliary Air Force squadrons of 'weekend' flyers to regular Indian Air Force Squadrons. These units were to form the training organizations where young pilot graduates of the Air Force Academy and Jet Training Wing would be sent for operational training and to be conferred ‘Fully Ops’ status. Resultantly, five Auxiliary squadrons were converted into two regular fighter or bomber squadrons, hence 220 and 221 Squadrons (both flying Vampires), came into being at Poona and Barrackpore respectively.
(Published by the team of TERRITORIALS)
