Kanpur's Aviation history owes much to it being a major Maintenance depot during the Second World War. Chakeri airfield near Kanpur was a Major operational airfield for the Royal Air Force during World War 2. It was the base for the 322 Care and Maintenance Unit RAF and was used to overhaul a good number of aircraft during the operations.
After Independence, Chakeri was the HQ of Maintenance Command before it shifted to Nagpur, and even today it houses the No 1 and No 4 Base Repair Depots of the Maintenance Command which deal with overhaul of transport aircraft of Russian origins.
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Kanpur was the place where the IAF had salvaged more than 40 B-24 Liberator bombers in the early fifties. These bombers were flying well into the seventies and it is possible a good number of wrecks and relics exist with the BRDs in Kanpur.