Centenary - 100 and Counting

In the last five years prior to the centenary, domestic air travel has doubled. In 2010 alone, Indian carriers mounted a total of 5,25,504 flights on the domestic network, carrying 520.21 lakh passengers and making this the ninth largest civil aviation market in the world.

The first commercial flight in India took to the air from an open field in Allahabad within sight of the confluence of rivers Ganges and Yamuna. The date was Saturday, February 18, 1911 and the setting—the United Provinces Exhibition. The occasion was billed as the world’s first official aerial post, which is why Lieutenant Governor Sir John Hewitt and Lady Hewitt, many government officials and a large crowd were assembled. A 23-year-old Frenchman, Henri Péquet (1888-1974), took off in a British-built Humber-Sommer biplane, fitted with a 50 hp rotary Gnome engine. He carried a 30-pound (13.6 kg) mail sack containing over 6,000 letters and 40 picture postcards which bore a special postmark ‘First Aerial Post, UP Exhibition, Allahabad, 1911’. The postal die showing the silhouette of a biplane flying over the mountains had been cut at the Postal Works, Aligarh, especially for the event. Péquet flew to the fortress at Naini Junction, about five miles (8 km) away, where he handed over the precious sack to a lone post office employee for onward dispatch of the mail by surface to celebrities and common folk all over the world. He returned immediately to the exhibition, completing the round trip in just 27 minutes.

One would have expected this historic flight to trigger a flurry of civil aviation activity in the subcontinent, but nothing of the kind happened for about two decades. The First World War (1914-18) firmly shifted the focus of aerial endeavour on to the military domain. However, there were some demonstration flights and a few intrepid aviators took to the air here and there. Meanwhile, in January 1914, the world’s first regular scheduled airline, the St Petersburg-Tampa Air Line began flying in Florida, USA, operating Benoist flying boats. In the UK, Imperial Airways, formed by merging four small airlines, took wing on April 1, 1924. This long-range air transport company operated till 1939 serving parts of Europe and the Empire routes to South Africa, India and the Far East. In December 1926, the first de Havilland DH-66 Hercules airliner ordered by Imperial Airways for service on overseas routes, left England to chart a new route to India via Egypt, arriving in Delhi in January 1927. In March 1929, the Short Calcutta, which was the first of Imperial Airways’ flying boats, left London for Karachi, connecting India with the UK for the first time through a regular air network. Later the same year, this route was extended to Jodhpur and Delhi, thus becoming India’s first regular domestic passenger flight. A temporary service from Karachi to Delhi run by the Indian State Air Service, operated sporadically between 1929 and 1931.

Tata forges ahead

Year 1929 was also the year when young J.R.D. Tata obtained his pilot’s licence through the Aero Club of India and Burma and became the first Indian to get it. The first Indian woman to earn a pilot’s licence was Urmila K. Parikh in 1932. In 1930, Tata Sons began chewing over a proposal to start an airmail service connecting Bombay, Ahmedabad and Karachi. Though J.R.D. Tata was instantly fired with enthusiasm, Dorabji Tata, then chairman of the Tatas, took some time before letting the youngster have his way. Thus Indian commercial aviation actually launched in sustained fashion on October 15, 1932, from Drigh Road near Karachi. The Imperial Airways flight carrying mail from England halted there, so the route chosen by Tata was Karachi-Ahmedabad-Bombay-Bellary-Madras. J.R.D Tata himself got airborne in a de Havilland DH 80A Puss Moth—his destination the Juhu mud flats near Bombay. From Juhu, Nevill Vintcent, a former Royal Air Force pilot and close friend of Tata, then took over for the journey to Madras, arriving on October 16. The first west bound flight left Madras the next day.

Such was the humble birth of Tata Aviation Service. It initially had just one Puss Moth and one Leopard Moth aircraft, one palmthatched shed, one whole-time pilot assisted by Tata and Vintcent, a part-time engineer and two apprentice-mechanics. In 1933, the first full year of operation, it flew 1,60,000 miles, carried 10.71 tonnes of mail and 155 passengers. No mean achievement. Over the next few years, Tata Air Lines (it was so renamed in 1938) continued to be heavily dependent on its contract with the government for carriage of surcharged mail, including a considerable quantity of overseas mail conveyed to Karachi by Imperial Airways. It later greatly benefitted from the UK Empire Air Mail Programme which commenced in June 1937, delivering mail to any destination for just a penny and a half per ounce. Neither were there special arrangements for the few passengers, nor did they fuss about it; they were generally accommodated on the sacks of the mail. It took some years for revenues from passenger traffic to overtake those accruing from air mail; that is when proper passenger aircraft were introduced. Inspired by Tata’s success, other private airlines like Indian Transcontinental Airlines and Indian National Airways commenced operations. The Indian Aircraft Act was promulgated in August 1934 and the Aircraft Rules in 1937; both are valid till today.

Although J.R.D. Tata became the fourth chairman of the entire Tata Group in 1939, his Airline remained his lifelong passion. In July 1946, it became a public limited company called Air-India. In March 1948, the Indian Government acquired a 49 per cent stake in the airline. Air-India operated its first overseas flight (Bombay to London) on June 8, 1948 and in the process it became the designated national flag carrier. Year 1948 was also the year when Prem Mathur became the country’s first woman commercial pilot and started flying for Deccan Airways— the premier airline of the erstwhile Hyderabad State.

Apart from Air-India, the aviation scene after Independence was rather messy. No less than 11 private airlines were competing for traffic sufficient for only two or three. Eventually, by the Air Corporations Act of 1953, the Government of India nationalised nine airline companies. The Act established just two carriers—Indian Airlines Corporation to cater to domestic air travellers and Air-India International for international passengers. Civil helicopter services were introduced the same year.

In 1956, Durga Banerjee became the first woman pilot of Indian Airlines. Air-India International entered the jet age in 1960 when its first Boeing 707-420 was flown. In June 1962, the airline’s name was again shortened to Air-India and it became the world’s first all-jet carrier. The jet age dawned for Indian Airlines with the introduction of the Sud Aviation SE210 Caravelle in 1964. In 1990, Air-India, in association with Indian Airlines, airlifted 1,11,711 stranded Indian nationals from Amman to Mumbai by operating 488 flights in 59 days, prior to the First Gulf War. Vayudoot was established in 1981 to provide feeder services between smaller cities. It was merged with Indian Airlines in 1993.

J.R.D. Tata remained the chairman of Air-India for 25 years after nationalisation. It is doubtful if the airline could have achieved the commanding heights it did without his hands-on approach. He transformed it from just another carrier into one of the world’s best—epitomised by its mascot the Air-India Maharaja. He was not called the ‘Father of Indian Civil Aviation’ for nothing.