March 29, 2024
A pristine HAL HPT-32 Deepak was installed at the Sports Complex in AFA in August 2014. All Deepak aircraft had been grounded after the fatal accident in 2009. 

The Air Force Academy had been home to HAL HPT-32 Deepaks for nearly two and a half decades. However after a fatal accident in 2009, the last in the series of several accidents involving the type, the HPT-32 was grounded, and all the eighty or so airframes in the Academy were 'retired' to an aircraft dump on the premises. One of the grounded airframes was pulled out for preservation within the Academy.

This airframe, X2574 is now installed at the AFA Sports Complex, having been placed there in August 2014

Two views of HAL HPT-32 Deepak X2574 just after its installation at the Air Force Academy Sports Complex in August 2014.  

The Sports Academy has other Aviation artifacts on display nearby. Just yards from the Deepak is the massive fuel drop tank of a MIG-25. The drop tank was removed from MiG-25U DS362 after its retirement to the Academy. The drop tank now currently does sign board duty for the Sports Complex.

 

Drop Tank of a MiG-25 near the Sports Complex entrance

 

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