Then and Now
From October 15, 1932, when the airline came into being, Air-India
has flown many different aircraft ranging from the famous Puss Moth,
a wood-n-fabric affair, which began it all on the mud flats of Juhu,
and such long forgotten pre-war types as the Leopard Moth, the
DH-86, the DH-89 and the Stinson; to the more familiar
post-war-types as the Dakota, the Viking, the Skymaster, the
Constellation and the Super Constellation.
Then in the sixties, came the Boeing 707s, the Boeing 747-200s in
the seventies. In the eighties came the Airbus 300-B4s, the Airbus
310-300s and the Boeing 747-300s.
The luxurious Boeing 747-400, equipped with all the latest
inflight gadgetry such as skyphone and airshow, joined the fleet in
the nineties.
Every one of these aeroplanes had a personality. They were as
individualistic as the men who flew them.
Some were docile and had endearing traits, others were willful,
lively and had a mind of their own. Their quirks and peculiarities
were the rage and despair of pilots and engineers.
Today, everyone remembers them with affection like old friends.
As Ernest K.Gann says in his 'Fate is the Hunter': "The only
characteristic all airliners share is that... upon proper urging
they are normally capable of leaving the earth's surface. Otherwise
the various types, regardless of their natural origin are as
individual as breeds of animals.
"The Stinson A is thought of as wanting a firm hand else it can
very quickly prove more treacherous than an unfanged cobra.. In
contrast, the DC-3 is an amiable cow grazing placidly in the
higher-pasturelands, marvellously forgiving of the most clumsy
pilot. Its immediate predecessor, the DC-2, is not such a docile
beast, although from a distance the unknowing can easily mistake one
for the other."
Gann's instructor on the DC-2 described it in this way : "You
won't have any trouble in the air, she flies sweetly enough. But a
DC-2 on the ground has ideas of its own.. Never get the idea you
know how to land a DC-2. You may make fifty perfect landings and the
fifty-first will humble you for weeks afterwards.
"These are stiff-legged brutes and once they start bounding, you
had better shove the nose down hard or you'll continue the gallop
until you fall off on a wing or run clear out of field".
When you see them now, they look like sweet little birds. Their
voices muted, relics of a by-gone era, incapable of causing anxious
moments to any pilot or engineer, remnants of history to remind us
of the successive milestones in the history of Air-India.
These magnificent flying machines are Air-India's history. Look
at each of them now, especially the pre-war types, and try to
imagine them in their true setting.
Aircraft designed with extra room space per passenger. Aeroplanes
equipped with the most modern entertainment options and airshow.
