On becoming a Republic on 26 January 1950, the Royal was permanently dropped from its name and it again became the Indian Air Force.

This message is being put up in the interest of accuracy. But I am very grateful to all the comments which have greatly added to its value. It is particularly good to see inputs from Pakistan including of the first pioneers of IAF.

Comments from Spain and Brazil have helped clarify the history of first flights in India. This is of great importance and very welcome.

Thank you all for contributing to this blog.

It was a pleasure reading your introduction about Group Captain Abdul Mujahid Morad. Could you provide some more details about the start of his flying career? Because W/C A.B.Awan writes in his book “The Winged Wagon”:

“1st term at Cranwell began about the seventh of September 1930. Flying kit was issued to us almost on the same day. First Period after drill programme consisted of flying. Our ‘A’ Squadron set, which consisted of Berens, Peel, Gosnel, Lloyd, Rhys, Gale and myself reported to ‘A’ Flight for flying. We met our flight Commander , F/Lt Boyle who was extremely kind and nice to all of us. I still remember his first words “ I like you Awan. I am giving you to flying officer Atcherley who will be your instructor”. Outside the flight Commander’s office I met F/O Atcherley already dressed up in flying kit, with his helmet and goggles on. “Ek-Do-Tin”-he said in Hindustani. “Come on Awan- get in that Avro Lynx No.2”. By this time I was in flying kit and parachute. Two airmen helped me in the rear cockpit and tied the harness. Chocks were waved away by Atcherley. He spoke to me in the speaking tube “Keep your feet lightly on the rudder bar and your hand on the stick and feel the controls as we take off”.

I had never been in an aeroplane before except a ten minute’s joy ride at Delhi in a light aeroplane, when I was told not to touch anything. Sensation was that of a thrill mixed with strangeness of the subject concerned. To me it appeared that the whole aerodrome was full of aeroplanes as almost everyone was taxying out. What Atcherley did; appeared a hat trick to me. I did not feel a thing and yet I felt that with the increase of noise of the engine we had left terra firma and were rapidly climbing up. I thought that at least there should be a little struggle with the control column, rudder bar and throttle before this invention of the Human being leapt up into the air.”

This shows that W/C A.B.Awan started his flying as early as September 1930 making him Indo Sub-Continents first Muslim pilot and ofcourse the First ever Muslim Pilot to join the RIAF.

Also according to P.A.F he is the first Muslim Military Avaitor of the Subcontinent
http://www.paffalcons.com/gallery/aviation-art/syed-hussaini/infancy-to-independence.php

You may also visit this link for more information

http://www.flickr.com/photos/asadawan/

Would like to hear from you.

Asad Awan

I am a photographer and author, who is about to touch77 yrs of his life. If you want to know more you type Delhi, Light, shades, shadows, on google search,and know what is my forte. Incidentally my father,the famous writer Nirad Chaudhuri, had seen the first flight in Calcutta,and was always interested in aviation particularly used in war.
Dhruva N. Chaudhuri

Azam

Azam

I am Pulak Sen, Editor-in-Chief of INDIAN AVIATION.
“Glimpses into INDIAN AVIATION HISTORY” by Late Mr Alka Sen, was published by our publication house and I was involved deeply with this project.
Alka Sen, my late uncle, had written this book after painstaking research in Indian and UK libraries, including the Imperial War Library.
I have seen the research material and the manuscipt, but there isno record of Mr Giacomo D’Angelis,He was the first man to fly in India(Madras) March , 10, 1910.
Alka Sen had travelled to all cities of India during his research to collect details about early flying in India from newspaper archives such as The Hindu, The Deccan Herrald, The Statesman, etc. I am sure, with his passion to detials, if he would have come across some details of Mr Giacomo D’Angelis,He was the first man to fly in India(Madras) March , 10, 1910, he would have definitly written about him.
Similarly, he researched throughly on Indian Air Force and its earlier avtar, RIAF and RIVAF.
I am sure all of us will agree that even with our best intentions, efforts and through research to write about historical facts, there are something that does not get recorded in history books.
In fact, once my uncle told me about the titile of his book, “Glimpses into INDIAN AVIATION HISTORY — 1910-1997″ that it is only his attempt to give the glimpse into this aspect of history as the subject that was dealt with by him was vast.
I would like to go into a little detialis about this book: It does not have any pictures as the pictures available were of poor quality and in the days we were producing the book, the re-production methods for this kind of pictures were not of today’s standards. Hence we decided to do without them.
Pulak Sen

Azam