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Tata Airlines - a precursor to Air India
Tata Airlines founded in 1932 by JRD Tata later became the airlines known as Air India.
JRD Tata
flew for the first time as a passenger when he was 15 in France and he
fell in love with flying. So in 1930's an Englishman named Nevill
Vincent suggested to JRD Tata that he should operate India's first
airline, he jumped at the suggestion. Nevill was in India to make money by offering joy rides, but he spurred something more meaningful.
On
October 15th, 1932 JRD Tata took off from Karachi to Ahmedabad and on
to Bombay in a solo flight carrying postage mail. He landed at the Juhu
airstrip and India's civil aviation took off. In 1946, Tata Airlines
became Air India and in 1953, the company was nationalized by the
Government of India.
In 1962, Air India became worlds first airline to fly all-jets fleet.
JRD
Tata in the meanwhile re-enacted his solo flight couple of times. Once
on the 30th anniversary and then again in 1982 on the 50th anniversary.
Spanning a century of flight
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From the
uncertain, tentative 12-second flight over a few hundred feet at Kitty
Hawk in North Carolina, man soon propelled himself to fly around the
world, non-stop if required, or at speeds three times that of sound
within decades of that first defining moment, writes
Pushpindar Singh
December
17, 2003, which marks the centenary of man’s first heavier-than-air
flight, celebrates an event that has clearly given a new dimension to
the destiny of mankind. The ability to fly, in safe and sustained
manner, is perhaps the most significant influences of our time.
From the uncertain and
tentative 12-second flight over a few hundred feet at Kitty Hawk in
North Carolina, man soon propelled himself to fly around the world,
non-stop if required, or at speeds three times that of sound or at the
fringes of near-space, all this within six decades of that first
defining moment. In 1961, man went to the moon and left footprints on
the lunar surface, an event whose import has not been entirely
appreciated by majority of the billions on earth. Surely, with
relentless evolution in technology, inherent genius and the continual
pioneering spirit of man, that first adventure will be seen as tentative
as that of December 17, 1903 with travel to distant planets in our solar
system (and perhaps even other galaxies) becoming a reality, whatever
inhibitions in physics seem to daunt that prospect presently.
 Air India’s Chairman JRD Tata with his wife on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of his Karachi-Ahmedabad-Bombay flight from Santa Cruz airport. The Puss Moth of the 1930s is dwarfed by Boeing 707 of the 1960s.  IAF personnel on parade in front of an Il-76, India’s largest aircraft  The supersonic, fighter plane Jaguar Maritime of the IAF |
Back on earth, aviation
was still in its infancy when it crossed the Atlantic and the Europeans
quickly demonstrated their mastery in designing, building and flying
early aeroplanes, more akin to contraptions of light spars, piano wire
and fabric. Travelling further east, it was the sub-continent of India
that quickly attracted these pioneers and in December 1910, barely seven
years after the flyer’s flight in America, the first aeroplanes had
arrived in India.
British-fabricated, but
French and Belgian flown, Bristol Boxkites, Farman biplanes and Gnome-Bleriott
monoplanes were assembled and demonstrated at Calcutta, Allahabad,
Secundrabad and Patiala. But for the paucity of funding at that
particular time, the world’s first military aviation arm may well have
been formed in India during 1913, a year before the Great War began.
1914-1918 spurred rapid development of fighting machines over the skies
of Western Europe.
The few intrepid
Indians who volunteered to fly with the Royal Flying Corps in 1917-1918
distinguished themselves in aerial combat and were the first of many
hundreds of Indian fighter pilots who donned flying kit and were engaged
in action during World War II when India was threatened with invasion
from the east.
The small but
war-trained Royal Indian Air Force was, tragically, partitioned in
August 1947 but is today, after the seven decades since foundation in
1932, regarded as the world’s fourth largest in size and certainly one
of the most committed in terms of continental responsibilities.
Of some 2400 aircraft
in current military or civil services in India, over 70 per cent of them
are in markings of the Indian Air Force, a reality which is reflected on
the pages of this book. Other air arms, including those of the Navy,
Army and Coast Guard, together total about 450 aircraft, leaving just
about 300 on the civil register, including all the wide bodied jetliners
of Air India and Indian Airlines, light sports aircraft with the flying
clubs and helicopters of various operators. For a country of the
geographical size and diversity that is India, this relatively small
number is a sobering fact. Civil Aviation in India has not grown
commensurately with the geo-political, industrial, economic and
strategic needs which can be supported by a large and healthy aircraft
inventory.
India’s aircraft
industry, which is virtually synonymous with Hindustan Aeronautics
Limited has provided the backbone of India’s air defence requirements
since the mid-1950s with production of Vampire jet fighters, Gnat light
fighters and Jaguar strike fighters from its Bangalore Complex while the
MiG Complex, centred at Ojhar near Nasik, has produced hundreds of
MiG-21 variants, followed by the variable-sweep MiG-27 fighter, and is
now preparing for production of the fourth generation Sukhoi Su-30MKI.
Basic and advanced jet trainers, light and medium helicopters, with
their power plants and avionics are also on the production programme.
 Tiger Moth, the most-7loved training aircraft with flying clubs  Super Constellations provided for slumberette sleeping bunks  Air India’s Boeing 707 being ceremoniously escorted by Gnats |
However, HAL’s
involvement with Civil Aviation programme has been limited to the Avro
(HS) 748 in the 1960s and later the Dornier 228 from the mid-1980s.
There has been little success in meeting the needs of the civil airlines
which is unfortunately a reflection on the defence bias of this public
sector undertaking which is part of the Department of Defence
Production. The only pure civil aviation programmes are those modestly
undertaken by the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) with their Hansa
and Saras programmes. It is hoped that the 30-odd flying clubs and
allied institutes under the Aero Club of India will be majorly revived
with these Indian-developed and built aircraft.
The fact is, the Aero
Club of India was established several years before the Indian Air Force
or the first civil airlines had come into being. The first flying clubs
were virtually the cradles from whence came India’s pioneer aviators
and fighter pilots. Expansion of the IAF post-1962 was largely possible
because of the role played by various flying clubs which also trained
naval and army aviators.
Civil Aviation in India
is now at crossroads with the dramatic declaration of an "open
skies" policy by India’s Prime Minister in October, 2003 which
would virtually allow the airlines of Asia to fly in and out of cities
of their choice in India and in reciprocal manner, allow the various
public sector and private airlines of India to fly to these Asian
destinations. The near future will reveal how prepared Indian Airlines,
Air India, and any other new incumbent airlines, were in accepting such
a challenge.
There were some de-novo
aircraft projects undertaken by HAL in the 1950s and 1960s, with primary
trainers, basic jet trainers, light utility aircraft and jet
fighter-bombers developed, produced and into operational service.
However, the "lost decade" of the 1970s widened the
technology-gap and it was only from the mid-1980s that new design and
development programmes were cleared and, with this, came expansion and
modernisation of the infrastructure. In the second century of aviation,
such new generation of Indian-designed aircraft will become familiar
shapes in the skies above the country. through various sections, the
evolution and status of the multiple aviation organisations in this
region on the world, focussing on the personalities, aircraft types and
events which have contributed towards making this an inspiring legacy.
— Excerpted from The History of Aviation in India
Spanning the Century of Flight by Pushpindar Singh
