One hundred years of flying high

An undated Tata Airlines route map reveals a wide network — Karachi, Bhuj, Ahmedabad, Bombay, Goa, Cannanore, Trivandrum, Trichinopoly, Colombo, Madras, Hyderabad, Indore, Bhopal, Gwalior and Delhi. Much later, an Air India timetable, of 1947, quotes among many fares a Bombay-Madras return ticket fare at Rs.256, and a Cochin-Trivandrum return ticket at Rs.57.
It's sometimes hard to believe that India is one of the cradles of world aviation, yet the fact is that we are in the 100th year of civil aviation in our nation. The achievements reveal an absorbing mix — of some world firsts, pioneer flights, the arrival of women aviators and aero clubs, all a part of the fascinating world of man and the ‘flying machine'.
It all began on February 18, 1911. On that day the first commercial civil aviation flight took place between Allahabad and Naini Junction, a distance of six miles, when Henri Piquet carried 6,500 pieces of mail on a Humber biplane. It quickly grabbed the spot of a “world first” in the process, as it is considered to be the world's first airmail service.
The next year, in December, Indian State Air Services, along with Imperial Airways of the U.K., began a London-Karachi-Delhi flight, it becoming the first international flight to and from India.
In between 1915 and 1929, there was a flurry of activity — Tata Sons Ltd. (1915), and the Royal Air Force (1920) started regular air mail services between Karachi and Madras and Karachi and Bombay, and airports were constructed (1924) at Calcutta, Allahabad and at Bombay.
31/10/11 Murali N. Krishnaswamy/The Hindu

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Nov 2011