Was India’s first plane made in Madras?

Watching the air show from my terrace last Sunday, I could not help thinking about Asia’s maiden flight, which took place on March 26, 1910, at our very own Island Grounds. That was by Giocomo D’Angelis, the Corsican hotelier of Madras and Ooty about whom much has been published in The Hindu.

Many questions have been raised about that flight. Was it really India’s and Asia’s first? And how much of it was made in Madras? The first can now be answered with some certainty. The volumes of Aircraft, a magazine dedicated to flying and which began publishing in 1910, throw some light. It appears that Calcutta had stolen a march, for Vol. 1, No. 3, May 1910 states that according to the Calcutta newspaper Englishman, “flights have been made near that city with a biplane of somewhat crude construction. A good deal of mystery surrounds them, and further and definite information will be awaited with interest. That the machine really exists, however, is apparent from the photograph we publish of it in its tropical looking shed or hangar.”

D’Angelis’ flight had taken place in March itself that year, and yet the Aircraft did not know of it. But in its June issue, it published a clarification and a correction. The photograph it had published in May, it said, was not from Calcutta but the property of Mr C (sic) D’Angelis of Madras. I am providing this picture alongside – it was clearly the first record of a hangar in India.

The same issue of Aircraft also clarified that what had flown in Calcutta over the maidan was a large gasoline-driven motor, thereby indicating that it was unmanned.

The article concludes stating that “the first flight in India is therefore yet to be heard of, but, judging from the activity displayed there, it is only a matter of weeks or perhaps days.” But as we know, that first manned flight in India, and Asia had already taken place on March 26 that year, at Madras. Clearly, information flowed slowly between India and the U.S. those days.

A small aside is that the above clarification in the Aircraft was attributed to a reader from Trichinopoly, which indicates how widespread interest in aviation was in 1910.

Now for the second doubt. Who supplied the engine for D’Angelis’ aircraft? The doubts were sown by a letter from E&A Levetus & Co, in the Flight magazine (publication of the Royal Aero Club, London), Issue 13, Vol. 2, March 26, 1910, with which they sent a photograph of D’Angelis’ aeroplane, which they said was the first in India. They also added that D’Angelis was their customer. The letter begins with a general query on motor engines and so that led to many assuming that it was this firm that supplied the engine for D’Angelis’ plane. This is contradicted by the India Weekly of the same period which states that the engine was made by Simpson & Co., Madras, under the supervision of Samuel Long Green, an American.

With the High Court of Calcutta judgments now available online, it is possible to state with certainty (Sen & Pundit vs ES Oakes dated June 18, 1919) that Levetus was merely a trader of bicycles. They must have supplied the two-wheeler which D’Angelis used on his aeroplane. The credit for designing the engine must therefore go to Simpsons.

That said, we cannot deny that nobody in Madras, D’Angelis, Simpsons and others included, saw any potential in aviation. That first flight was merely a stunt but nevertheless it did happen in Madras.

(V. Sriram is a writer and historian.)

Published - October 08, 2024 10:59 pm IST