Kochi: It was 1997. Louis and Kuruvilla J. George — brothers and, more importantly, men with scientific temper — hurriedly set up a makeshift lab in the cowshed of their 300-year-old ancestral house in Kochi.
They had received an order to make an airborne antenna for the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) — the country’s first indigenous aircraft. Both thrilled and nervous at the prospect of designing “antenna for something that flies,” it took the brothers a week to firm up their conviction. A year-and-a-half later, they found success as the vendor, NPOL, cleared the prototype. And with that the first indigenous aircraft had its antenna.
Since then, Verdant Telemetry & Antenna Systems, the company founded by the duo, has been supplying cutting-edge antenna and related equipment to DRDO, HAL and BEL, to name a few of their high-profile clients.
Many a time, their exported antenna comes back to the country integrated into a system. Their biggest clientele is Indian defence and, internationally, the U.S., Europe and Israel.
The brothers began humbly by dabbling in mechanics as a hobby. The two would tinker endlessly with the lathe and tools at their father’s engineering workshop. At home, they had access to journals such as Popular Mechanics and Science Today. Their mother’s neatly labelled and filed botany drawings were another source of inspiration. In school, they studied pure science, and later Louis specialised in Composites technology.
18/08/15 Priyadershini S/The Hindu
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They had received an order to make an airborne antenna for the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) — the country’s first indigenous aircraft. Both thrilled and nervous at the prospect of designing “antenna for something that flies,” it took the brothers a week to firm up their conviction. A year-and-a-half later, they found success as the vendor, NPOL, cleared the prototype. And with that the first indigenous aircraft had its antenna.
Since then, Verdant Telemetry & Antenna Systems, the company founded by the duo, has been supplying cutting-edge antenna and related equipment to DRDO, HAL and BEL, to name a few of their high-profile clients.
Many a time, their exported antenna comes back to the country integrated into a system. Their biggest clientele is Indian defence and, internationally, the U.S., Europe and Israel.
The brothers began humbly by dabbling in mechanics as a hobby. The two would tinker endlessly with the lathe and tools at their father’s engineering workshop. At home, they had access to journals such as Popular Mechanics and Science Today. Their mother’s neatly labelled and filed botany drawings were another source of inspiration. In school, they studied pure science, and later Louis specialised in Composites technology.
18/08/15 Priyadershini S/The Hindu
