Nagpur: Small children waved tricolours and the Air Force band played a colourful note to accord a warm welcome to 43 aircraft, from Cessna to Chetak choppers, touched down at Sonegaon airport in Nagpur today (Nov 22) after successfully completing the last leg of Air Race India 2003.

Flying criss-cross, 51 aircraft were flagged off simultaneously on Thursday (Nov 19) from Barrackpore in the East, Bangalore in the South and Goa in the West to mark the centenary of powered flight under the aegis of Aeronautical Society of India.

The race was held to mark the world's first-ever flight by the Wright brothers in 1903, who took to air in their "Wright Flyer" in Kittyhawk in US.

Senior officers of Indian Air Force (IAF) and a contingent of mediapersons were also at the tarmac of the technical area of Air Force at the airport to receive the fliers.

Seven aircraft failed to take off from their respective airbases while one of the civilian planes dropped out of the race at Trichi due to a technical snag, an IAF spokesman, co-ordinating the event, told reporters.

Most of the aircraft sailed through, without any major problem mid-air and maintained the cruise speed, according to their aircraft and fuel capacities. There were three women co-pilots besides two girls from NCC (National Cadet Corps) air wing from Bangalore and Belgaum respectively.

But the cynosure of all eyes was a diminutive, Audrey Maben, who took off on a solo flight on her x-air-f type aircraft from Bangalore and touched the city airport safely. Basically a glider pilot, Audrey has 120 hours of flying experience.

PTI