On January 24, pilot couple Gaurav Taneja (popular on social media as flying beast) and Ritu Rathee Taneja announced that they would draw a map of India in the sky on the occasion of Republic Day. In an Instagram video, the couple said it would be a tribute to the nation on Republic Day. They have named the initiative “Aasman Mein Bharat”.
In the video, they said, “You are doing an amazing job by taking Bharat forward through your creativity and art, Likewise, we are making a small effort to take our country to newer heights. To celebrate the 74th Republic Day, we will be creating the largest imagery of Bharat in the sky. What could be better than celebrating this milestone with you. Looking forward to your support and encouragement.”
It will be a first-of-its-kind mission in the history of India. Captain Gaurav has 12 years and 6,000 hours of flying experience. The couple will complete the mission, which they will commence from the Tampa Airport, Florida in the US, in almost 3 hours by flying around 200 nautical Airmiles covering an approximate distance of 350 KMs in the sky. The journey can be tracked through their social media handles using Radar imaging.
Earlier in the day, Flightrader24, a real-time aircraft monitoring app, posted an image of a map of India created by a Cessna 172 Skyhawk aircraft above Florida in the United States on its official Twitter handle. Flightrader24 tweeted a real-time image of the Cessna 172 Skyhawk departing from Tampa Airport in Florida and flying over Florida to create an Indian map before returning to Tampa Airport.
Notably, Flightrader24’s tweet has since been deleted, but if one visits the link provided in the screenshot below, one can still view an image of a Cessna 172 Skyhawk making a map of India in the sky.
A video of the aircraft creating the largest map of India in the air was also shared by several other Twitter users.
@flyingbeast320 what a man you are made the Indian Map on sky #AasmanMeinBharat pic.twitter.com/dJ4Mm33LpR
— Piyush Patnaik (@Piyush_legionP) January 24, 2023
— VT-LTS ✈ (@LineshShah) January 24, 2023
The posted video is a recording of the Flightrader24 app’s live monitoring on January 22, 2023. Since the pilot couple announced that they will complete the task on January 26, 2023, when India will celebrate its 74th Republic Day, the test run must have taken place on January 22.
