A news article by Syam Nath on the website Yentha.com sheds some new light on the aircrafts displayed at Bal Bhavan in Trivandrum. While covering the background of Sea Hawk that is currently in place, it also sheds some tidbits on the Shorts Sealand that was displayed before the Sea Hawk.
A news article by Syam Nath on the website Yentha.com sheds some new light on the aircrafts displayed at Bal Bhavan in Trivandrum. While covering the background of Sea Hawk that is currently in place, it also sheds some tidbits on the Shorts Sealand that was displayed before the Sea Hawk.
““The first plane here was an amphibian aircraft,” says Madhu, campus manager of Balbhavan, “The amphibian can land on water and land. It was kept here in 1971. However, the Navy thought that they needed a model of the amphibian with them. So that one was taken to the Naval Museum in Ernakulam few years later and the Sea Hawk was brought here in 1980 from Ernakulam.”
Madhu remembers the occasion because he was here at that time. “It was a historic event, so to say,” says Madhu. “The journey from Ernakulam to Trivandrum took around three months. This was because of the size and weight of the plane. The aircraft was transported using cranes from the VSSC. The wings were folded upwards and electric cables had to be unclipped many a time during the journey. This had caused significant delays in the trip.””
