Did you know that as many as 10 private airlines were operating in India in 1948? Or that the air ticket between Calcutta and Delhi cost Rs.126 at that time? Or that the Indian Airlines got its first woman pilot in 1956?
Such nuggets of information have been brought out in a book published by the ministry of civil aviation to commemorate 100 years of civil aviation in India.
The coffee table book, "100 years of Civil Aviation in India", released at India Aviation 2012 here, catches the evolution of India's civil aviation sector from the first commercial flight Feb 18, 1911 to its emergence as the ninth largest market in the world today.
The 200-page book with photographs and illustrations gives a gripping account of the sector's journey from pre-independence era to nationalisation of the sector after independence and its transformation under the 'open skies' policy of 1990.
The book takes one back to the times when cities like Karachi, Bhuj, Ahmedabad, Bombay, Goa, Bellary, Cannanore, Trivandrum, Trichinopoly, Colombo, Dacca, Rangoon, Madras, Hyderabad, Indore, Bhopal, Gwalior and Delhi were all on the route map of different airlines.
While it was Feb 18, 1911 that French pilot Henri Pequet flew a Humber Bi-plane from Allahabad to Nain, a distance of six miles, it was only in 1932 that J.R.D. Tata, who was the first to get a pilot license, started the first domestic airline Tata Sons.
It started weekly air services between Karachi and Madras, touching Ahmedabad, Bombay and Bellary en route, connecting with the weekly Imperial Airways flight from London to Karachi.
Operating with two second hand De Havilland Puss Moths, Tata Sons accumulated a profit of Rs.10,000 in the first year. The next year saw airlines like Indian Trans Continental Airways (ITCA), Madras Air Taxi Services and Indian National Airways (INA) commencing their operations.
16/03/12 IANS/Times of India
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
0 comments:
Post a Comment