JRD Tata's love for aviation and how India flies along with his dreams
From founding the airline to spreading the wings of the Maharaja to Europe in 1948, Air India remained JRD Tata’s first love
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For JRD Tata, Air India was a labour of love born of his passion for aviation and farsightedness. He was into aviation for the long haul and began his stint in the aviation industry with an airmail service (1932) run under the name of Tata Services – with two planes, three pilots and three mechanics. The annual report of the Directorate of Civil Aviation (DCA) of India for the year 1933-34 lauded the impeccable airmail service run by Tata. Image Courtesy: Tata Team
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Inspired by the chief pilot (Adolph Pegoud) of legendary Louis Bleriot’s — the first man to fly across the English Channel in 1909, JRD Tata at the raw age of 15 decided that he wanted to be a pilot and if possible make a career in aviation. The moment of enlightenment struck JRD after taking a joy ride in a Pegoud’s plane at Hardelot in France. He was 24 when he finally acquired his flying licence stamped with ‘No. 1’ – making him India’s first pilot. Image Courtesy: Tata Team
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The first flight in Indian aviation history lifted off from Karachi with JRD at the controls of a Puss Mouth plane. “On an exciting October dawn in 1932, a Puss Moth and I soared joyfully from Karachi with our first precious load of mail, on an inaugural flight to Bombay. As we hummed towards our destination at a ‘dazzling’ hundred miles an hour, I breathed a silent prayer for the success of our venture and for the safety of those who worked for it. We were a small team in those days. We shared successes and failures, the joys and headaches, as together we built up the enterprise which later was to blossom into Air-India and Air-India International.” Image Courtesy: Tata Team
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From 1932 to 1977, a career spanning 46 years, JRD Tata gave India a national airline and an international airline – India Airlines and Air-India, respectively. His aviation career spanned an era from the wood and fabric of the little two-seater Puss Moth to the gleaming 400-seater giant Boeing 747. In recognition of this epic figure’s services to air transport, JRD was made the recipient in 1979 of the Tony Jannus Award, named after the founder pilot of the first scheduled airline in the world, which began in Tampa, Florida, in 1912. Image Courtesy: Tata Team
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