PUSHPAKS TO DAKOTAS

While some of you might have heard stories of a flying machine known as pushpak biman flying the Subcontinental skies in ancient times (Ram, Sita and Laxman are said to have used one on the return leg from Lanka), all scientific evidence suggests that powered flight is a 20th century invention. The propulsion systems, material for airframes, and electrical advances required for heavier-than-air flying just were not available back then..Like photography, railroads and the motor car, airplanes too were discoveries of the West. It is generally agreed that flying was invented by two American bicycle mechanic brothers who wanted to more than wheel along. The first planes to cross South Asian skies were flown in by the British colonists, some years after Orville and Wilbur Wright perfected their flying machine in 1903 and test flew it on the hill of Kitty Hawk..The first planes were made up of wire, wood and fabric. In order to maximise the wing area required to lift the airplane into the air, they had two wings, one above and the other below the fuselage, which was why they were called biplanes..As often happens, it is the demands of the military that push development of advanced technology, and this was true of air travel as well. The need to dominate the skies led the warring sides in both the First and Second World Wars to develop fighting flying machines..In South Asia, some interesting things happened in between the wars. There was, for example, the eccentric Englishman who in 1937 had a novel idea on how to climb Mount Everest — crash land on to the side of the mountain somewhere above 25,000 feet, and then walk up to the su3emmit. However, his plane was confiscated in Bombay on his way in, and the crazy plan could not be carried out. (He did disguise himself as a Tibetan and get to Everest, but only to die on its slopes.).Carrying mail was one of the first tasks of airplanes, and our region saw the inaugural mail service when J.R.D. Tata flew a tiny Puss Moth monoplane (one wing) from Karachi to Bombay via Ahmedabad on 11 October 1932. He commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of that pioneering flight on 11 October 1982 in a replica of the original, which is today a museum piece hanging overhead at the Aero Club of India at New Delhi´s Safdarjang Airport..Mr Tata was a scion of a famous Parsi industrial family (whose Tata trucks can be found today all over Asia and Africa). We can safely describe him as the father of South Asian civil aviation, for he went on to establish Tata Airlines, which was renamed Air India 1947. This airline is one of the most successful international airlines in the world (although its reputation has slipped a bit in recent years, especially after the Government took it over from the Tatas). Mr. Tata died two years ago, an octogenarian..To go back to the chronology of events, the air war during 1914-1918 was mostly restricted to Europe, and it was the Second World War (1939-1945) which firmly established flying in South Asia. Swarms of fighters, bombers, and transport aircraft arrived from Europe and North America to provide defence for the Allies against the Japanese forces who were advancing up the Burma front..The airfields of Eastern India, in particular, were full of the drone of piston engines as planes flew sorties against the enemy or transported soldiers and supplies to the war front. One of the largest air campaigns ever conducted was what came to be known as "flying over the hump". Airplanes, mostly Douglas DC-3s and their military cousins, C-47s, flew thousands of sorties from huge air bases in Assam, flying north over the rugged mountain terrain of the Eastern Himalaya, into Yunan in south-em China. They were supplying the army of Chiang Kai Sek, who was in retreat from the Japanese invasion of the Chinese mainland..The DC-3 (known popularly as the "Dakota") is considered one of the best designed airplanes ever, and it has seen a very successful career that continues to this day, half a century later. More Dakotas have been built than any other airplane in history, 10,150 in all..Many of the Dakotas brought over to South Asia by the Allies stayed on after the war was over, which was how "civil aviation" (the carrying of non-military passengers) began in the Subcontinent. The first "silver bird" that the people in the far comers were to see, from the Andaman Islands to Balochistan in Pakistan´s west, was, more likely than not, a Dakota. It is said the DC-3 arrived in the valley of Pokhara (in central Nepal) before the bullock cart..In time, piston engines (which run with spark plugs much like car engines) gave way to turbo-props and jet engines, but the piston-engined Dakota continues to fly in South Asia. You can still see one of these trusty aluminum birds parked on the tarmac when you fly to Delhi´s Palam airport, and the distinctive drone of a DC-3, although it is now rarely heard, is enough to make old-timers very nostalgic indeed..In the beginning, there were quite a few small airlines in British India, many of them started by maharajas and princes, who had money on the side and the urge to fly. With Independence, however, it was thought appropriate that each country have its own "flag carrier", as a symbol of modernisation and national pride. This was how Pakistan International Airlines, Indian Airlines, Air India and Royal Nepal Airlines were born, often through a merging of existing airlines and collection of their airplanes. Bangla Biman came later, when Bangladesh became independent in 1971..While airplanes are a modern, convenient and safe way to travel, while discussing flying we must remember that it is still a very expensive way of travel. Only the relatively rich are able to fly, and we must not forget that most of South Asia´s people travel by bus or train, if not by donkey, bullock cart, camel, and foot..A Hobby.Watching airplanes is a hobby made difficult in most South Asian cities because the airports are located so far away from the city centers—Dum Dum in Calcutta, Palam in Delhi, Katunayake in Colombo, and ZIA in Dhaka. In that sense, Kathmandu is the plane-watcher´s capital of South Asia because all planes are forced to circle over the valley in which the city is located before they head out. This allows the airplane buff to identify airlines and aircraft makes..For those who have taken to "airplane watching" as a hobby, there is great satisfaction in being able to distinguish between one aircraft type from another (a McDonald Douglas DC-10 from a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, a Boeing 767 from an Airbus 310, a Tupolev 154 from a Boeing 727) and between airlines (the red tail of Indian Airlines from the green of Pakistan International, or the peacock motif of Air Lanka)..The surest way to recognise which country an airline belongs to, of course, is to check its registration markings, which are clearly written on the wings and on the fuselage. All aircraft registered in the United States, for example, begin with N followed by a dash and numbers and letters. In South Asia, the registration prefix is ´VT´ for India, ´9N´ for Nepal, ´S2´ for Bangladesh, ´AP´ for Pakistan and ´4R´ for Sri Lanka..Elsewhere, there are plane-watching clubs whose members have their eyes firmly glued to the skies and ears straining for the roar of aircraft engines. So far as we know, there is as yet no such club in any of the countries of South Asia. Maybe it is time someone started one.