The first ever RAF Air Show in India was in February 1927; a month later it was recommended that Indian officer cadets should be trained at RAF Cranwell

A silver wire and brass inlaid box that marks the RAF's 'First Aerial Pageant In India, Delhi 1927.'

This RAF air display was intended to showcase the might of Britain. But it happened at a time of intense debate about the 'Indianisation' of the military. Ultimately it was displays like these, and the performance of Indian pilots in the Royal Flying Corps in World War One, that helped build the cultural, political and public interest and momentum, leading to the birth of the Indian Air Force in 1932.