Wings over India

India’s aviation history goes back to the early days of flying. Henri Pequet made the world’s first air mail flight in February 1911 from Allahabad to Naini Junction, but three Bristol Box-kites belonging to the military had been in India since the previous winter. The Royal Flying Corps patrolled the North West Frontier with Afghanistan in the Great War. The first air mail flight from Britain to India was in April 1929 and civil air transport in India developed in the 1930s. Meanwhile the embryo Indian Air Force was established at Karachi on 1st April 1933. During the Second World War modern combat aircraft flooded the country to fight the war against the Japanese. The partition of 1947 caused mass migration in which transport aircraft played a part. The author became interested in the subject of India’s aviation history in the 1980s when it was still possible to see aircraft operating there which dated from the 1950s. This illustrated history covers from early days into the 21st century.