Chronicles of the flying machine

On Bangalore’s busy Airport Road is a 10-acre oasis of calm that children of all ages and their parents are sure to find interesting, educational and fun. Welcome to the HAL Heritage Centre and Aerospace Museum, one of India’s few public museums on aviation.
Opened six years ago on August 30, this unique museum was the brainchild of the then chairperson of HAL, Dr. Krishnadas Nair. Through its exhibits, it showcases the growth of the Indian aviation industry and of HAL in particular. The museum’s biggest attraction is its aircraft collection exhibited outdoors, where aircraft designed, developed and built by HAL are on display, as well as those produced under license for the Indian Air Force. Some of the romance and excitement of flying seems to come alive merely by peering into the cockpit of the Marut, India’s first transonic aircraft, used from the 1960s up until the early 1980s. Among the other planes displayed are the transport plane Devon, the NAL developed small plane Hansa, a mock-up of the Light Combat Aircraft and HAL’s trainer aircraft Pushpak and Kiran, both of which are still used by flying clubs and by the IAF.
There are also some exhibits on the aerospace industry, among them scaled down models of polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) and the geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV).
Hall 2 gives visitors an idea about the technologies involved in aircraft manufacture and the changes that have taken place over the years.
24/08/07 Meera Iyer/The Hindu

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Categories: General Aviation Aug 2007