To fly or not to fly

The Tatas must urgently find a way to stem the rot in Air India

- BY CAPT G.R. GOPINATH

THOUGH MANY DIE in road accidents every day and India holds the record for the highest number of road fatalities and train accidents, air crashes still capture our imagination more than any other form of accident. Ever since man evolved from the apes, he has been fascinated by flight, watching birds in the sky. How one envies the bird high above, winging from tree to tree, over lakes and hills and dales, and thinks to oneself, “Ah, if only I could fly!”

Over 2,000 years ago man invented kite flying. He attempted tower jumping with makeshift wings nearly two millennia ago, and many perished in the attempt. Leonardo da Vinci scientifically designed flying machines with aeronautical concepts, but they were un-flyable due to limited knowledge at the time. In the late 18th century, the invention of the hot air balloon enabled manned flight.

The first heavier-than-air, manned powered flight came from the pioneering efforts of the Wright brothers in the US in 1903. Many dreamers and adventurers died in the seemingly impossible pursuit of flight. Yet, just over a century later, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner can fly 14,000km; the Boeing 777-200LR can fly 17,300km; and the Airbus A350-950 Ultra Long Range can fly 18,000km. Flights from Delhi to San Francisco or Singapore to New York now take 14 to 20 hours. The scale of this transformation is mind-bending.