Air India 101, 1966 – The many mysteries at Mont Blanc

The fate of AI 101 Kanchenjunga VT - DMN is well known to many interested in Air India and to those who have studied India’s nuclear developments. Simply put, this commercial flight, a Boeing 707-437 operating between Bombay and New York via Delhi, Beirut, Geneva and Paris, took off without inciden…

Kurt Tank – The legendary test pilot and aircraft designer

And the Marut HF 24 project at Bangalore Prof. Dr. Dipl.-Ing. Kurt Waldemar Tank was not only a brilliant German engineer and designer of many successful aircraft that flew in the Second World War but was also a competent test pilot. Responsible for the designs of the Fw 190 fighter, the Ta 152 figh…

Ganesha’s curse

The tragic tale of Harriet Quimby, America’s pioneer aviatrix This is yet another incredible story, and the latter part will be better understood by an Indian. Now you may wonder how Ganesha the elephant-headed God, so revered by Indians, could have anything to do with a woman named Harriet Quimby…

Mohan Singh, the Enigma

The first Indian airman – Licensed to fly in 1912 It is not often that a story grips you, and this was one. We had all been brought up on reports that JRD Tata was the first Indian pilot, that he possessed the #1 license, and so on. But in reality, there was another pioneer from India who was licens…

The Flying Swami

Kuttan Nair,  Swami Vishnudevananda  – a.k.a. the  Parakkum Swami  Some years ago, I wrote about GP Nair who took off from a British airport in 1937 and met an untimely demise, but what was unique was that he was one of the first licensed (licensed in 1931), perhaps the very first Malayali pilot. Murko…

Cannanore Days

Burnshire - Cannanore 1944-46 Burma had been taken by the Japanese, Singapore and Malaya had been lost earlier and the trepidation of invasion through the eastern frontier near Assam was paramount in quivering allied hearts. Indians were in two minds, one supporting the Azad Hind massing up in Burm…