Indian Air Force Day is celebrated on October 8, every year in the country. Every year, Indian Air Force Day is celebrated at Hindon Air Force Station, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. The celebrations are marked in the presence of the IAF chief and senior officials of the three-armed forces.
HISTORY
The Indian Air Force is also known as “Bharatiya Vayu Sena”, was established on 8 October 1932 in British India as an auxiliary air force of the Royal Air Force. On 1 April 1933, the IAF commissioned its first squadron, No.1 Squadron, with 6 RAF-trained officers and 19 Havai Sepoys or air soldiers.
After it became independent from the British Empire in 1947. India’s air force retained the name of the Royal Indian Air Force, but three of the ten operational squadrons and facilities, located within the borders of Pakistan, were transferred to the Royal Pakistan Air Force. The RIAF Roundel was changed to an interim ‘Chakra’ roundel derived from the Ashoka Chakra.
MOTTO
The Indian Air Force motto is “Touch the Sky with Glory“. It has been taken from the eleventh chapter of the Gita.
THEME
Last year, the theme for IAF Day was “the untiring efforts and supreme sacrifices of its personnel”.