MiG 27 - Flogger

MiG 27 - Bahadur

The Mikoyan MiG-27 (Russian: Микоян МиГ-27; NATO : Flogger-D/J) is a variable-geometry ground-attack aircraft, originally built by the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau in the Soviet Union and later licence-produced in Bharat (India) by Hindustan Aeronautics as the Bahadur ("Valiant"). It is based on the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 fighter aircraft, but optimised for air-to-ground attack. Unlike the MiG-23, the MiG-27 did not have widespread use outside Russia, as most countries opted for the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23BN and Sukhoi Su-22 "Frogfoot" instead. It remains in service only with the Kazakh Air Forces in the ground attack role. All Russian, Indian and Ukrainian MiG-27s have been retired.  

The MiG-27 designation was used by the Mikoyan-Gurevich firm some time before, this occurring while trying to fulfill another Soviet requirement for a dedicated low-level close-support aircraft. While this aircraft went on to become the Sukhoi Su-25 "Frogfoot", the MiG-27 designation resurfaced again in the dedicated ground-attack version of the MiG-23 interceptor. The MiG-27 retained the same NATO codename of "Flogger" as the MiG-23.

Development

Development of the Flogger fighter always included provision for making it a dedicated strike version. The original MiG-23 was an interceptor at heart, built on straight-line speed and designed to engage in air-to-air combat with ground strike as a secondary (albeit limited) role. The MiG-23 entered service in the early 1970s and replaced the aging MiG-21 "Fishbeds" in their air defense roles. The MiG-21, while fast and capable, suffered from having short range and a limited ordnance capability. The arrival of the MiG-23 remedied that.

Though the MiG-23 was converted into a modified fighter-bomber version, it still retained much of its "fighter" origins. However, the aircraft was cheap to produce, robust, reliable and - with some modifications - could be made adapted into a more dedicated role. The result was the MiG-23BM "Experimental" which ultimately became the MiG-27 "Flogger".

The MiG-27 was developed into an export model by way of the MiG-27L. India was the major customer to which Mikoyan and the Soviet government sent the aircraft in parts to the South Asian nation for indigenous production. The MiG-27L was based on the MiG-27M and differed only in a revised Infra-Red Search and Track (IRST) housing under the nose. HAL of India handled construction of 130 ground attack fighters.

India was also the recipient of an indigenous upgrade program that produced the improved MiG-27H in 1988. MiG-27Ls were used in the upgrade program and fitted with French-based avionics.  There was also an optional French-based Agave or Russian-based Komar radar system to be housed in the nose radome for improved air-to-air and anti-ship capability as needed. The upgrade program covered some 140 to 180 aircraft.  

This fighter got decommissioned on December 31st 2019.

IAF's "lethal" fighter aircraft Mig 27, which proved to be "ace attacker" during the 1999 Kargil war and earned nickname of 'Bahadur' from pilots, passed into the glorious history of country's air force on Dec 31st 2019 when their last squadron of seven planes had its last sortie from Jodhpur airbase.
The fleet also took an active part in Op-Parakram.

This was the only squadron left now known as Scorpion 29 comprising seven upgraded MiG 27 at Jodhpur Air Base. This will be the end of an era of swept wing ground attack fighters in the world.
The No. 29 Squadron, known as the ‘Scorpios’, will be ‘numberplated’ (placed in suspension) until it can be re-operationalised with new aircraft and manpower.

The Last Flight

As a matter or remembering the MiG 27 Flogger, a watch has been created. The watch is inspired by the swing wing of the MiG 27. Its a limited edition watch that were made only in 25 numbers. 

MiG 27 Flogger Design

Aircraft Design for Dial

Proposed Dial

Case Back Design - (Smallest Swept Angle for Greater Speed)

Patch for MiG 27 - Flogger

Squadron of 25 MiG 27 (Case Back)

The case back was lazer etched using the MiG 27 art work and also numbered. 

The arrow was inspired by the IR sensor on the aircraft nose and antenna. The Crown is based on the duck billed/ platypus nose. 

The Bahadur

Lume Shot

Something for this great nation Bharat.

उत्तरं यत्समुद्रस्य हिमाद्रेश्चैव दक्षिणम् ।

वर्षं तद् भारतं नाम भारती यत्र संततिः ।।

The greatest lesson on nationalism was taught by Sir Rama to Lakshmana after the war with Ravana 

अपि स्वर्णमयी लङका न मे लक्ष्मण रोचते ।
जननी जन्मभूमिश्च स्वर्गादपि गरीयसी ॥
Api swarnamayi lanka na me Lakshman rochate
janani janmabhoomishch swargaadapi gasriyasi

Sri Rama says to Lakshmana ,” Even though this Lanka is made of gold, still it does not appeal to me. The Mother who gave birth to me and my motherland are more respected and at a higher level than heaven itself.”

HMT Day/Data Pointer etc...

HMT Pointer Dates

HMT has a distinction of producing watches which have date pointer complication. Date pointer / date pointer is a concept in which the either day or date chapter has been replaced by a pointer hand and the said pointer shows the day or date. 

HMT produced certain automatics which had these complications. It is said even HMT manual winding had these but I have not seem any of them. HMT essentially used a modified 6500 movement for the date pointer and were essentially made in Bangalore factory. These date pointers were sold at a higher price during the early 90's and they were considered a flop project. Thus these were not produced in great numbers. The HMT variants that had date pointers were Excel, Leo and Taurus. Sweekar is a day pointer. There are watches developed in the similar dial features this post also highlights those too.

The picture below depicts the changes in the 6500 movement to make it a day/date pointer.

Excel / Taurus / Leo - Date Pointer Movement

Sweekar Day Pointer Movement

1.  HMT Sweekar
 The special watch has been in demand ever since the first post on social media. These were watches wherein the day complication has been replaced by a pointer wheel. This pointer wheel depicts the day that has been printed on the dial. These were available in three basic dial colours viz., black, white and yellow. Black never came out but only in test dial stage. The known variants were white and yellow. These were also exported to Japan market which had no day pointer but a day window at 6-o clock position. The Japanese variant was in a Kajal case. There are mix and match variants developed by local mechanics in which Rajat case in used.

HMT Sweekar (picture courtesy Sriharsha)

Sweekar Yellow Dial

Sweekar Mix and Match

The Sweekar and Pinki Plinth in HMT Museum

2. HMT Excel
This one is a special watch wherein the date window is replaced with a date hand. The dial edges are printed with dates and the hand denotes the date. Thus, the name date pointer. These watches were produced in Bangalore factory 02 in the 90s. These watches houses a 6500 movement with the date mechanism replaced with a date pointer ring and a hand. Initially due to its price there were no takers for this watch and hence was discontinued. The HMT mad rush in 2014 created so much hype and enthusiasm that these were deemed rare and thus the price escalated beyond reach. These were the date date pointers that were also mentioned in the HMT watch catalogue. 

Excel from the Catalogue and Early Webpage

 The excel were available in three dial colours namely white, yellow and black (unseen). Three variants (date pointer, just excel without date pointer (Japanese version), excel with day chapter at 6-o clock). 

HMT Excel (Date Pointer) Pic Courtesy Team-BHP

HMT Excel Pic Courtesy Ponnappa

I too was lucky to find one of these. Initially the excel that I had did not have the date pointer wheel but few months back did get an opportunity to find one. It had reached a level where in people used to ask about the date pointer every-time the watch was posted.

HMT Excel (before)

HMT Excel (after)

HMT Excel (HMT Museum)

 

Excel in Showroom (circa 2011)

In the past few days one more variant of Excel has been seen. The difference being the print on the dial. The ring printed on the dial which just graces the Roman indices is not present.

HMT Excel Variant (Mix and Match Case): Dial Variant

Picture Courtesy Sachin Jayakumar

 

 

 

A Rare Variant of Excel with Numerals (Courtesy Sachin Jayakumar)

 

3. HMT Leo

This watch is like the hens tooth or the phoenix. These were never produced in numbers and did not sell in the earlier days. Leo along with Taurus were deemed unfit for the market in the 90's era by the marketing team. These have become collectable and rare. The leo dial has a guilloche pattern similar to that of HMT Sona but a flat dial. The indices at 12,3,6 and 9 were raised indices designed using coining process along with arrow type indices for other indices.

Picture Courtesy Manoj Kumar and Bipin Takhur

4. HMT Taurus

This is one variant which has many combinations in terms of dials and date complications. Traditionally Taurus is just a simple roman indices watch with day and date complications. This also had been listed in the old HMT webpage as HMT Taurus SS.

HMT Taurus (webpage)

HMT Taurus (Roman Indices - SS Case)

These Taurus were superseded by the date pointer versions.

Taurus Full Numerals Date Pointer Pic Courtesy Ponnappa

Taurus Half Numeral Date Pointer

Apart from this HMT also had Japanese and Banner Date Variants.

HMT Taurus (Banner Day) Japanese Version Pic Courtesy Ponnappa

HMT Taurus (Banner Day) Japanese Version Steel Case

Taurus Banner Date (Kajal Case) Japanese Edition

Taurus Dater (Pic Courtesy Ponnappa)

Taurus Automatic (Half Numerals)

Taurus Plinth in HMT Museum

Ensemble of Taurus

HMT Taurus (Dater) Pic Courtesy Tarun

It is said there are many more variants.
One collector Raviprasad also tried to design his version of Date Pointer which he called Aries.

Raviprasad's Design Aeries (Copyright Raviprasad)

There are similar watches that are similar to Taurus and Leo manufactured in the same generation in the same assembly line of Bangalore.

HMT Anuroop

HMT Abhijit (Pic Courtesy Ranjit)

I tried to develop one date pointer on self interest.

Date Pointer (Not from HMT)

It is believed that many test dials of similar kind had been made in the Bangalore factory which would eventually come out. Will try to update them as soon as possible. 

Something for this great nation Bharat.

उत्तरं यत्समुद्रस्य हिमाद्रेश्चैव दक्षिणम् ।

वर्षं तद् भारतं नाम भारती यत्र संततिः ।।

"The country (varṣam) that lies north of the ocean and south of the snowy mountains is called Bhāratam; there dwell the descendants of Bharata."

आ ब्रह्मन् ब्राह्मणो ब्रह्मवर्चसी जायतामा राष्ट्रे राजन्यः
शूर इषवयोऽअतिव्याधी महारथो जायतां दोग्ध्री धेनुर्वाढानड्वानाशुः
सप्तिः पुरन्धिर्योषा जिष्णू रथेष्ठाः सभेयो युवास्य यजमानस्य वीरो जायतां निकामे निकामे नः
पर्जन्यो वर्षतु फलवत्यो न आषधयः पच्यन्तां योगक्षेमो नः कल्पताम् ॥

The Story of Tumkur Pilot

HMT Pilot Variants from Tumkur (Karnataka)

Pilots have been a legendary line of watches for HMT. There had, has and will have a fan following to this widely known and popular Pilot. It has been quite sometime since people commenting on this watch. I genuinely feel the reason behind this phenomenon is due to the supply and demand gap that has decreased. The Pilots has been produced in all factories of HMT starting from Bangalore, Chinar, Tumkur and Ranibhag. Pilots as all enthusiasts know is black pie pan dial with defected indices at 3, 6, and 9 position filled with lume along with the indices at 12 has been hand lumed. The pilot do have dauphine hands which is also lumed. This series bit of article address the Pilots produced by Tumkur factory in particular.  

The reason of choosing Tumkur factory is simply because it is know for producing Pilot variants other than the known black dial. It would also be of reasonable interest to the readers too. Tumkur factory has an unique distinction of producing handwinding and quartz watches. Some of the memorable quartz produced includes Roman moonphase (RGGL) and Moonphase quartz. I will try to highlight those in a separate blog later. This is article will focus on Pilots only. The first that might come to a enthusiast is why focus on the Pilot produced by Tumkur factory ? What's special in Tumkur factory that other could not do? The answer to this question lies in the dial variants of Pilot. Tumkur was know to be the most upgraded and updated factory of HMT Watches Ltd. which initially began producing mechanical then further diversified to quartz and also strap manufacturing. Black dial Pilot was definitely produced in Tumkur too which was similar to other factories but with distinctive qualities. In this article I have tried to highlight the White dial variants of the Pilot.

During the mid 90s Tumkur factory came up with a unique Pilot which was a mixture of Sona and Janata. It has the arabic numerals of Janata and guilloche pattern of Sona. The dial was a pie pan dial with a guilloche pattern at the center and raised arabic indices. The what had the same dauphine hands as that of Pilot BD. One of the earliest HMT Pilot was seen with a collector who had two of these wherein one had sword hands.

The First Edition of HMT WD Pilot (Internet Source)

  

First Edition Pilot (Internet Source)

The first edition WD Pilot can be identified by looking at the print next to indices 6 which depicts NR-4 (Which means Nippon Release - 4 (Tumkur Factory)). So it is concluded these were essentially manufactured for Japanese market and few of them were also released in Bharat. Incidentally these were also made in GP edition which had a unique case back. GP plated dauphine hands and raised indices on the dial was also gold plated. The unique feature was the 20Kt gold plating of the case and also mentioning of the same on the case back.

Case Back of Pilot GP (Note: 20Kt Gold Plated)

Pilot GP (Picture Courtesy Adheip)

Pilot GP (Picture Courtesy Adheip)

Pilot GP (Picture Courtesy Sachin Jayakumar)

These variants were totally forgotten by the HMT brotherhood. Until WUS displayed these variants. Later a project on WUS started the enthusiasm among the collector where in this variant of Pilot WD with Blue hands was initiated. Pilot WD blue hands edition was a limited edition of 500 with Blue dauphine hands with a Limited 500 etched on the press fit case back.

HMT Pilot WD - Blue Hands (Limited Edition)

HMT Pilot WD - Blue Hands (Limited Edition) Case Back

The limited edition pilot has a history by itself. The dials came from Tumkur factory and was assembled in Ranibhag factory. The case and hands were manufactured in Ranibhag. This watch has seen ups and downs of HMT. The watch by itself was a rage among collectors but the watch was produced under generator power in the factory since Ranibhag had not paid its dues towards electricity board. Finally the HMT team dial a remarkable work in getting this done. There are other stories too with respect to Ranibhag unit which I will touch upon later.  

This watch created such an environment that everyone started looking for these. Everyone was desperate for this variant and the prices skyrocketed. People got desperate and the franken market was there to exploit. Some of the fraken blue hands version shown. I too had one of these franken ones.

Franken Pilot Blue Hands (Pic Courtesy Sachin Jayakumar)

One person from Chennai had a fight with HMT. He asked reason why the watch limited to 500 only? Finally HMT made an attempt to make an unlimited edition of the same watch.

HMT later released the Pilot blue hands version with red second hands which was rejected and the second hands were redone with blue seconds on genset power in a short time and was released.

Pilot Blue Hands (Unlimited Edition)

The unlimited version of the Pilot had huge demand and still the aura remains. HMT saw a huge potential in this and hence they re-released the white pilot with steel dauphine hands.

The request of the limited edition went so high that resellers and parallel assembly line (franken watch makers) made a fake case back too.

Fake Case Back

 Finally HMT did realise the market demand involved and started making these in large numbers with steel dauphine hands too.

2014 Pilot WD Release (0231-B variant movement)

Pilot WD (NR-4)

This closed the chapter of manufacturing these Tumkur pilots. Untill recently many more variants came out from Japanese market and some unseen and unheard dials.
HMT has a picture in the Museum depicting the watches released by HMT for Japanese Market.

HMT Japanese Release from Tumkur Factory

The picture above it is pertinent to see a few pilot releases in Japanese market in the same lines of priya.

HMT Pilot Japanese (Pic Courtesy Raviprasad)

Pilot Japanese Edition (Pic Courtesy Raaj)

Pilot GP Yellow Dial (Pic Courtesy Manjunath Kulkarni)

Pilot Silver Dial (Picture Courtesy Sachin Jayakumar)

These are some Japanese versions of Pilot. Further we also got to see one edition of Pilot WD with Lume.

The lume dots on the outer circumference (Pic Courtesy Bipin Thakur)

Earlier last year the HMT community got to see the Pilot GP in a new avatar wherein the Black dial pilot has been released in its GP avatar. There we lots of discussion regarding the same.

Pilot GP (Pic Courtesy Tarun Agarwal)

Finally the last seen variant of Pilot also a version of Priya variant.

Pilot Checkered (YD) 

Few more variants of the Tumkur pilot for export market have been seen. These are the Pilot WD and Pilot. These were named RYON instead of PILOT.

It is believed that many more variants exists from the Tumkur factory and only time will tell. Till then that time I would close the Tumkur Pilot chapter.

Something for this great nation Bharat.

उत्तरं यत्समुद्रस्य हिमाद्रेश्चैव दक्षिणम् ।

वर्षं तद् भारतं नाम भारती यत्र संततिः ।।

"The country (varṣam) that lies north of the ocean and south of the snowy mountains is called Bhāratam; there dwell the descendants of Bharata."

आ ब्रह्मन् ब्राह्मणो ब्रह्मवर्चसी जायतामा राष्ट्रे राजन्यः
शूर इषवयोऽअतिव्याधी महारथो जायतां दोग्ध्री धेनुर्वाढानड्वानाशुः
सप्तिः पुरन्धिर्योषा जिष्णू रथेष्ठाः सभेयो युवास्य यजमानस्य वीरो जायतां निकामे निकामे नः
पर्जन्यो वर्षतु फलवत्यो न आषधयः पच्यन्तां योगक्षेमो नः कल्पताम् ॥