Chandigarh, Sept. 26 -- After more than six decades of service to the nation, India's first supersonic fighter jet, the Mikoyan-Gurevich (MiG)-21, is set to take its final bow.

On Friday, the legendary jet will receive the final send-off in Chandigarh, marking the end of a remarkable era in the Indian Air Force (IAF) history.

For pilots who flew the fighter, the MiG-21 was a machine of elegance and power.

Wg Cdr Avinash P Chikte (retd), who logged over 2,200 flying hours on the aircraft, recalls the moment he first saw the jet at a squadron in Tezpur, Assam, in 1982. "It was love at first sight. She stood in all her glory, her steel shining in the sun," he says.

"It felt like a missile strapped to a pilot," he says recounting the thri...