The history of flight emerged from dreams to soar through the sky like a bird. Birds seem to fly with so little effort that it was only natural that
early attempts of flying emulated birds. Early myths about flight and probably many attempts involved carving wings out of birds’ feathers. Since ancient times, it was believed that the mechanism of bird flight was more complicated than it appeared to the naked eye.
Nearly all ancient literatures contain myths about flying deities. The gods of ancient Egypt, Minoa and Mesopotamia were often depicted as having magnificent wings. Greek gods flew without any visible means. To the people of ancient civilizations, flying was the province of the gods.
Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier invented a hot air balloon in 1783 carrying a sheep and a duck. On 21st Nov 1783, two men flew for 25 minutes over Paris in a hot air balloon.
George Cayley was the first to perform various experiments with gliders. In 1849, Cayley made a glider that could fly carrying human being. He carried out numerous experiments and generated a lot of scientific data for aeronautics.
On 17th Dec 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright, two bicycle mechanics who had no understanding of principles of flight, propulsion and aircraft structures, developed the flying machine named Flyer I and gave wings to the world. Orville Wright flew the Flyer 1 at 10:35 AM at Kitty Hawk beach, North Carolina.
The first flight lasted 12 seconds and covered a total distance of 120 feet. The aircraft crashed after the 4th flight by Wilbur Wright which lasted for 59 seconds and covered a distance of 853 feet. This was the first powered flight in a heavier-than-air machine. Prior to that, people had flown only in balloons and gliders.
The introduction of aircraft in 1903 generated immense interest among aviation fraternity in using them for mail transport. India has the distinction of organising the first flight by an aircraft in the world.
The first official flight took-off on 18th Feb 1911 in Allahabad, India, when Henri Pequet carried 6,500 letters for a distance of 13 km. The first scheduled air service began in Florida on 1st Jan 1914. Glenn Curtiss had designed an aircraft that could take-off and land on water.
After first flight in the year 1911, it took more than 20 years for the country to have its own airline.
On 15th Oct 1932, Tata Sons Ltd., which later became Air India International, commenced weekly airmail service with a Puss Moth aircraft between Karachi and Madras via Ahmedabad and Bombay, covering a distance of over 1,300 miles.
The history of the Indian Aircraft Industry can be traced to the founding of Hindustan Aircraft Limited at Bangalore in December 1940 in association with the erstwhile princely State of Mysore and late Shri Seth Walchand Hirachand, an Industrialist of extraordinary vision. The Indian Government bought one-third stake in the company by April 1941.
The decision by the government was primarily motivated to boost British military hardware supplies in Asia to counter the increasing threat posed by Imperial Japan during the World War II.
After India gained independence in 1947, the management of the company was passed over to the Government of India and was renamed as Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) on 1 October 1964 when Hindustan Aircraft Limited was merged with Aeronautics India Limited and Aircraft Manufacturing Depot, Kanpur to form Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
Indian Airlines took over all the domestic routes and routes to Pakistan, Ceylon, Burma, Iran and Afghanistan. Air India took over all the long distance international routes. The fleet was fairly big consisting of 73 DC-3 Dakotas, 12 Vikings, 3 DC-4s and some other smaller aircraft.
The number of airports gradually increased over a period of time, which included five international airports at Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi and Trivandrum.
Upto1972 DGCA was the regulator as well as the service provider for CNS and ATM and also managed all the airports of the country. In the year 1972, International Airport Authority of India was established to manage four major international airports viz. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. National Airport Authority of India was formed in June 1986.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) was later formed by the merger of International Airports Authority of India (IAAI) and National Airports Authority (NAA) through Airports Authority Act, which came into existence on 1st Apr 1995 with a view to accelerate the integrated development, expansion and modernization of the operational, terminal and cargo facilities at the airports in the country conforming to international standards.
The first feeder airline in India named Vayudoot was formed in Jan 1981 as a joint-venture between the two state-owned carriers i.e. Indian Airlines and Air India. The airline was originally conceived to serve the North-East region. It started with retired flight crew of Indian Airlines to fly the HS-748 and F-27 aircraft and later Dornier DO-228 aircraft.
Despite a successful run of over a year, the services were discontinued because of demanding nature of the operation due to which its financial performance started deteriorating which finally led to the dissolution of the company and merger of its assets into Indian Airlines in 1993.
In Apr 1997, the flight operations of Vayudoot were transferred to Indian Airlines and its employees were absorbed in Indian Airlines and Air India. The Indian aviation sector was characterised by high degree of Government control prior to regional air transport services was introduced in India in the year 2007 to promote air travel accessible to remote corners of the country where there had been no air linkages earlier.
This concept was introduced to facilitate equitable economic growth to all parts of the country. Connecting smaller cities by air is important as it also opens up the horizon for these towns providing multitudes of opportunities in terms of business, education, etc. To start with, Star Aviation, MDLR Airlines, Jagson Airlines and ZAV Airways have been granted permission to commence scheduled regional air transport services. Except MDLR Airlines, none of the other airline could take-off. In Oct 2008, MDLR Airlines also suspended its operations and finally closed down in the year 2011.
The aviation scenario in India from 2007 onwards witnessed consolidation through mergers of two state-owned carriers, Indian Airlines and Air India. The merged airline is operating under the brand of ‘Air India’ both domestically and internationally.
The merger has provided an opportunity to some extent to fully leverage strong assets, capabilities, infrastructure and skilled and experienced manpower available with both the companies to the optimum potential. The year 2007 also witnessed Jet Airways acquiring Air Sahara for Rs. 14.5 billion (US$ 340m). As a part of acquisition, Air Sahara has been renamed as JetLite. The new entity had been earlier placed between a low-cost carrier and full-service airline.
However, after the conversion of all Boeing aircraft of JetLite into all-economy, the complementary in-flight services have been withdrawn. There was another acquisition in the same year with Kingfisher Airlines acquiring 26% of Air Deccan shares with additional 20% from the open market. With this the United Breweries Group became largest shareholder in Air Deccan. In Oct 2007, Air Deccan changed its name to Simplify Deccan and introduced a colour scheme which compliments that of Kingfisher Airlines which was later renamed as Kingfisher Red.
While Kingfisher Airlines continue to serve corporate and business travel segment, Kingfisher Red continue to focus on low-fare segment. In the year 2010, the Sun Group, an electronic media magnate, took over the control of Spicejet by acquiring 56% shares from the open market.
In the present scenario, there is little doubt that the LCCs will continue to expand the scope and density of their networks. The LCC market is now sufficiently mature with long-established LCCs adding new aircraft into their fleet and new LCCs commencing air service with all new aircraft.
The role of the legacy carriers in future will largely depend on how successful they are in adjusting their business models to meet new market dynamics and competitive environment.
Due to extreme uncertainty over the future of oil prices and slowing economy, coupled with low fares and excess capacity in the market, the airlines are bound to suffer huge financial losses in immediate future and the industry as a whole may see either further consolidation in the form of mergers or foreign investments.
– PTI Feature
