angeldemon_007
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After sixty four years of Independence, why don't we have a single fighter jet IN SERVICE, designed and built entirely in India? Or for that matter, a commercial passenger aircraft? We've managed to build up a robust space programme. But we can't build our own planes. This book tells you why.
It's the sort of book that would only appeal to folks who're interested in aeroplanes. Who wonder why India has to keep going to foreign companies for aircraft to defend our borders. Who wonder why Sweden, China, even Brazil can build and even export perfectly good planes. But a rising superpower like India can't.
It's also the rare book that combines passion with precision. It enumerates almost every single type of defense aircraft ever made in India. It goes back to the birth of the aircraft industry in pre-independence India, when Walchand Hirachand tied up with William Douglas Pawley to manufacture gliders here. This was the company that many years later became Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
It talks about fledgling attempts to make our own small planes, in post-independence India. About the political pushes and pulls, the frustration of our scientists, the fight to get adequate funding.
I almost cried when I read about the HF-24, also called the Marut. In 1960, fifty years before today's Light Combat Aircraft or Tejas, India built and flew a supersonic multi role combat aircraft through our skies. A visionary German engineer Dr Kurt Tank helped us.
When it was ready, it was one of the best fighter jets in the world at that time. The west couldn't believe a third world country could pull off a stunt like that. The Marut fought in the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war and performed gloriously.
Yet, around 1984, almost all the Marut's we built were discarded. The reason - its engines were called too weak for modern warfare. Of the 140 planes we threw away, at least forty had not even flown for twenty hours each. The five hundred plus strong team of scientists who worked on the project were disbanded. And we bought modern aircraft off the shelf from abroad.
How weird that hardly any of us know this story. Of the enormous amount of talent and money wasted, of the infuriating short sightedness of the bureaucrats and officers who made those decisions.
Read this book for unknown gems like that. Carefully gathered by a man who proudly served and led the Indian Air Force all his life. In the excitement around India's purchase of new fighter aircraft, we should be looking over our shoulders. To avoid the stupidity that's plagued our past.
'Indian Aircraft Industry' full of unknown gems - Books - Book Reviews - ibnlive
It's the sort of book that would only appeal to folks who're interested in aeroplanes. Who wonder why India has to keep going to foreign companies for aircraft to defend our borders. Who wonder why Sweden, China, even Brazil can build and even export perfectly good planes. But a rising superpower like India can't.
It's also the rare book that combines passion with precision. It enumerates almost every single type of defense aircraft ever made in India. It goes back to the birth of the aircraft industry in pre-independence India, when Walchand Hirachand tied up with William Douglas Pawley to manufacture gliders here. This was the company that many years later became Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
It talks about fledgling attempts to make our own small planes, in post-independence India. About the political pushes and pulls, the frustration of our scientists, the fight to get adequate funding.
I almost cried when I read about the HF-24, also called the Marut. In 1960, fifty years before today's Light Combat Aircraft or Tejas, India built and flew a supersonic multi role combat aircraft through our skies. A visionary German engineer Dr Kurt Tank helped us.
When it was ready, it was one of the best fighter jets in the world at that time. The west couldn't believe a third world country could pull off a stunt like that. The Marut fought in the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war and performed gloriously.
Yet, around 1984, almost all the Marut's we built were discarded. The reason - its engines were called too weak for modern warfare. Of the 140 planes we threw away, at least forty had not even flown for twenty hours each. The five hundred plus strong team of scientists who worked on the project were disbanded. And we bought modern aircraft off the shelf from abroad.
How weird that hardly any of us know this story. Of the enormous amount of talent and money wasted, of the infuriating short sightedness of the bureaucrats and officers who made those decisions.
Read this book for unknown gems like that. Carefully gathered by a man who proudly served and led the Indian Air Force all his life. In the excitement around India's purchase of new fighter aircraft, we should be looking over our shoulders. To avoid the stupidity that's plagued our past.
'Indian Aircraft Industry' full of unknown gems - Books - Book Reviews - ibnlive
