New Delhi: An air trip a 15-year-old undertook in France led to the birth of Indian aviation.
Overwhelmed by the flying experience, the boy, Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata, popular later as JRD Tata, decided to get a licence to fly airplanes. His dream came true when he qualified for flight licence, the first in India. The flight licence, bearing the Number 1, was issued on February 10, 1929.
The first aviator from India, JRD Tata, gave shape to Indian aviation, and now after 68 years, the Tata Group can't be more proud when the national carrier, Air India, is likely to return to its hangar as reports say it has won the bid for the ailing national airline after the Union government decided to privatise it.
Tata's first flight was on October 15, 1932. The flight, an airmail service, took off from Karachi and landed in Bombay. He also initiated a weekly flight in the Karachi-Ahmedabad-Madras sector.
Aircraft belonging to Tata Air Services covered 2.6 lakh kilometres in its first year, flying 155 passengers and 9.72 tonnes of airmail. The company, floated with a capital of Rs 2 lakh, made a profit of Rs 60,000 in its first year.
JRD later recalled that the services did not have a support system either on land or while airborne. The aircraft operated without radio signals, navigation, or landing guide system. Bombay did not even have a proper runway, but for a muddy stretch in Juhu, which got inundated during the rains. Due to the flooding of the runway, Tata had to temporarily shift two aircraft and support mechanisms to a ground in Pune every year.
The annual report, 1933-34, of the Directorate of Civil Aviation had highlighted the efficacy of the Tata Air Service. Still, the airline's request for a subsidy for flying airmail was rejected.
Tata Air Service later changed its name to Tata Airlines. A one-way Bombay-Thiruvananthapuram ticket then cost Rs 100, while the fare was Rs 75 to Delhi.
The airlines, which Tata floated in 1932, became Air India in 1946, and the Central government took over the airlines in 1953. JRD Tata continued as its chairman till 1977.
The Tatas have been trying to get the airline back. A bid to take over the national carrier in 2001 had to be aborted after the Central government went back on its decision to sell the airline.
Tata Sons launched two airlines in 2013, Air Asia India in partnership with Malaysia-based Air Asia, and Vistara, jointly with Singapore Airlines.
