Was it an Indian who invented the airplane?

Eight years before Wilbur and Orville Wright, two brothers from Dayton, Ohio, became the first people to fly a heavier-than-air, power-controlled machine, known as the Wright Flyer, Shivkar Bapuji Talpade is claimed to have constructed and flown an unmanned, heavier-than-air aircraft in 1895! He was an Indian instructor at the Sir JJ School of Art with an interest in Sanskrit and aviation.

A bamboo-framed glider

The aircraft was named Marutsakhā, which means ‘friend of the wind’ in Sanskrit. It was a bamboo-framed glider with a wingspan of about 15 feet (4.6 m). The power source was a mercury-powered turbine, which was supposed to have spun the propellers.

There is no concrete evidence to support the claim that Talpade flew Marutsakhā. The only contemporary account of the flight is a brief mention in the Marathi newspaper Kesari, which reported that the aircraft ‘rose into the air’ and flew ‘for a few minutes’. However, the article does not provide any details about the flight like the altitude or duration.

There are also no surviving photographs or drawings of Marutsakhā. The only known depiction of the aircraft is a painting that was created many years after the alleged flight. This painting is based on the account in Kesari.

Historians are divided

Some historians have questioned the authenticity of the claim that Talpade flew Marutsakhā. They point out that there is no other evidence to support the story, and that the Kesari article is not very reliable. They also argue that the technology required to build and fly a successful aircraft in 1895 was not yet available.

Others are more open to the possibility that Talpade did indeed fly Marutsakhā. They argue that the Kesari article is credible and that the technology required to build a bamboo glider was within Talpade’s reach. They also point out that there have been other cases of early aviation pioneers whose achievements were not widely recognized at the time.

Claim to fame

There are a few reasons why there are claims that Talpade built an airplane. First, Talpade was known to be interested in aviation. He studied Sanskrit, and he was fascinated by the descriptions of flying machines in ancient Hindu texts. He also met with aeronautical engineer Subbaraya Shastri, who is said to have given him technical advice on how to build an airplane.

Second, the desire to promote Indian nationalism. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a growing sense of Indian nationalism. Some people wanted to prove that Indians were capable of great scientific and technological achievements. The claim that Talpade had built an airplane was seen as a way to promote Indian nationalism.

Talpade built the helicopter!

Talpade is also said to have built several other aircraft, including a helicopter and a submarine. However, there is no evidence to support these claims. Even if Talpade did not fly Marutsakha, he was still a pioneer in the field of aviation. His work helped to inspire other Indian inventors and engineers, and it paved the way for the development of modern aircraft.