Aero India 2001 was to give the author the opportunity to inspect the upgraded MiG-21UPG or MiG-21 Bison for the first time, whose conversion from the MiG-21bis had just begun at HAL in Nasik. An earthquake of magnitude 7.7, which shook the western Indian state of Gujarat shortly before the event and killed more than 20,000 people, thwarted these plans. Because the Il-76 that was to bring the upgraded aircraft to Bangalore (flight testing had not yet begun) was needed to supply the earthquake victims, the MiG-21's participation had to be cancelled.
The other memories of this trip are also rather mixed – hair-raising traffic chaos, incredible noise, air pollution that left the author wheezing rather than breathing for the first hours of his stay. And then there was the matter of accreditation: as a result of the correspondence before the event, the author only had a few printouts but no official letters, and so, consequently, the answer at the gate was: no entry. But entry would have been necessary to collect the press pass. After several phone calls there was no alternative but to buy a regular ticket first and use it to make one's way to the head of the event, who finally put his handwritten OK on some piece of paper. After a lengthy bureaucratic process this led to the issue of a press pass, which sometimes gave access to the flight line and sometimes did not – India, after all.
One episode that has nothing to do with aviation also remains in memory from this trip: having eaten only at the hotel the entire time – for fear of jeopardising the trip with a gastrointestinal infection – the author did not want to leave the country without having tried a typical local dish. Before departing from Bombay he bought from a street vendor something that can perhaps be described as puffed rice with hot sauce and herbs, which was mixed by hand (!) and served in a bag made of newspaper. It tasted delicious and – despite the at least questionable form of presentation – had no negative consequences.
