"When you fly at those altitudes there's a sudden change in environment. Now, you see the sky as blue, when you go to those heights the sky is dark. You can see the stars during the day-light, you can see the curvature of the earth. Then you suddenly feel you don't belong to this earth, you don't want to come down to land. You want to stay there. There's a distinct feeling of aloofness that you don't belong to this earth," said Air Vice Marshal J.S.Grewal (Retd), one of the pilots of the pioneering batch, which trained in the then Soviet Union.
A MIG-25 taxies at the Bareilly Air Force Station after its last ceremonial flight on the completion of the plane's total life of 25 years, in Bareilly, India, Monday, May 1, 2006. The aircraft's role in the Indian Air Force was that of Strategic Reconnaissance and as a long-range high-level interceptor. (AP Photo/Mustafa Quraishi)
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