When Indian Starts Flying

There was hectic activity to bring planes to India and show them off in 1910. First off the block for His Highness the Maharaja of Patiala. He sent his British Engineer CW Bowles to Europe to look at the new art or science of flyingand bring a couple of planes back with him. Bowles returned to India in December 1910 with a Farman biplane made in England and a Gnome-Bleriot monoplane fitted with two seats. Apparently in Europe, France was the first to get into the business of flying. The Farman was also a French design but built inEngland by a Thomas Holt, recognized as the father of the aviation industry in England, in collaboration with Farman Brothers of France. Fortune did not favor Patiala and neither of these aircraft became the first to get into the air.

“The first actual flight was successfully attained by Mr. Davies in a ‘Bleriot’.

 On the 10th of December  1910. Mr. Davies had the machine ready and early in the morning circled the polo ground at a height of twenty five or thirty feet.

The paper added,

 “ Thus Allahabad has had the distinction of giving the lead not only in India, but also to the whole of Asian Continent in connection with the latest of scientific wonders”.

TATA Touch the Sky

The Royal Air Force inaugurated its first station in India at Ambala. But the Indian Air Force (IAF) was launched by an act of the Governor General on October 8, 1932. The A Flight of No. 1 Squadron came into existence on April 1, 1933 under the command of an RAF officer on deputation. Its senior-most Indian officer was Pilot Officer Subroto Mukherjee who later became IAF’s first Indian Commander-in-Chief as an Air Vice Marshal and then took over as the Chief of Air Staff as an Air Marshal. His successor was Air Marshal AM  Engineer.  Air Marshal AM had started his flying career rather early. He and RN Chawla were the first Indians to fly a De Havilland Moth from India to England. They left on March 3 and arrived on March 20,1930.  Air Marshal AM’s return flight from England was to contest for the Aga Khan Prize of £ 500 for flying between the two countries in either direction JRD Tata took off in a Gypsy Moth on May 3 from Karachi for England. They crossed each other at Aboukir in Egypt where AM was in some trouble due to problems with some spark plugs. JRD helped him out. AM arrived in India when JRD had just reached Paris. Presumably because he took longer, JRD Tata came second to  Air Marshal AM who won the Prize. But JRD was never a loser. After protracted negotiations with the Government of India, he started his airmail service under the name of Tata Aviation, later to become Air India. He piloted the first carriage of mail from Karachi to Bombay on October 15, 1932

In 1953 all airlines of India including Air India and Indian National Airways were nationalized to form Indian Airlines Corporation.