A Late start to Engineering in IAF

If Subroto Mukerjee, Jumbo Majumdar and Harjinder Singh had to start a new Air Force to win wars in this hi-tech world today, what would they think about the infrastructure, work force and the command & control needs?

Air Force, unlike an airline, requires industrial muscle to keep external interference at bay. The need for in-house engineering since independence has therefore been vital; especially because of the weak indigenous defence industry. A significant contribution has been made by Air Force engineers. However, there have been mixed organisational approaches shifting between admiration and disregard towards the engineering functions. Many don’t understand that engineering, well beyond the limited field maintenance and spares procurement, is a core function of the Air Force – its importance cannot be diluted. Moreover, in the technological world of today, engineering operations and planning assume profound significance.

A historical perspective would be useful to relate to the engineering tale beginning with the birth of IAF on 8^th October 1932. The British policy of raw material from India returning back as ‘Made in England’ products had ensured that Indian industrial capability was insignificant before Independence. Only a few industrial houses were engaged in manufacturing of end products. India had only a few engineering colleges before 1932. A majority of them imparted diploma level of education in Civil Engineering, considered adequate for Indians to assist British engineers.

The lack of indigenous engineering acumen, especially in the fledgling field of aviation, coupled with the British strategic need for dominance must have been a decisive factor in establishing no more than field level aviation maintenance in India. It was therefore natural that at its birth the IAF inducted only technicians without an engineering officer cadre.

As the story goes, one among the first batch of officers couldn’t complete flying training. Consequently, he was inducted as the first officer in the Equipment branch to look after the stores/ purchase functions (all inventories came from England).

“Wish you had continued to be the baby that I could cuddle”
                                               -  Anonymous mother

What a wonderful baby, the IAF – one squadron (one flight) with 4 aircraft, 5 young pilots and 29 technicians, hand held by a young British Commanding Officer. The first lot of officers was commissioned on 08 Oct 1932. As the Air Force grew steadily, many more pilots, a few more Eqpt officers and Admin & Staff Duty (A&SD) officers were commissioned. However, it took the Air Force 10 years before the first Tech officer was commissioned on 03 Sep 1942.

‘Birth of An Air Force’, written long ago by Air Cmde AL Saigal and ‘Spitfire Singh’, written recently in a more engaging style by Mike Edwards MBE are both biographies of AVM Harjinder Singh. Stories of this first technician and engineer of the Indian Air Force tell us that the British officers were not prepared to accept that Indians could be technically trained to maintain their own machines. It was okay for an Indian to be a pilot, but, an Indian wouldn’t be accepted as an engineer meddling with British aeroplanes. This explains why it took so long for the engineering infrastructure to emerge followed by an officers’ cadre to manage it.

“The secretary of State for India seemed willing to remember the exploits of a few Indians who had served as pilots with great distinction in the World War I . . . but he wasn’t for having Indians doing anything technical or mechanical with the aircraft.”

                                  -     “Spitfire Singh” by Mike Edwards

The Indian Air Force was fortunate that in response to the requirement of ‘D’ Class apprentices from Railways, an altogether different set of young men driven by passion for a new India turned up to join at the lowest level as Hawai Sepoys. Some of them like Harjinder Singh had completed full five years of engineering studies. It is unbelievable that young Harjinder, who was paid a stipend of Rs 90 per month in his fifth year of college and had a job offer of Rs 225 per month, joined IAF starting at
Rs 35 per month.

“If all Indians wanted to be officers, there would not be anyone left to serve in the ranks. Do you want British airmen to come and start an Indian Air Force? If so you are dreaming.”

                          -     Birth of an Air Force, Quote by W.O. HE Newing (Instructor)

A classic example of how a late start can turn favourable - Harjinder Singh and his colleagues were able to institute a culture of hands-on work, which would not have been possible otherwise. It is inspiring to read that Harjinder Singh, on the request of Jumbo Majumdar turned down an offer for commission in RAF in 1939. Three years later, he accepted commission in the IAF and became its first engineering officer.

                                  

Harjinder Singh quickly rose to be a Group Captain, commanding Air Force Station Kanpur. He led many an initiative in engineering as well as administrative fields. Harjinder Singh and Kanpur have been common in stories of extraordinary achievements like recovering Liberators from the wrecks and later bringing IAF to the jet age with Vampires.

The Air Force formed its Maintenance Command at Kanpur in 1955 to bring a large number of repair depots, workshops, maintenance units and supply points under one functional system. Under Harjinder Singh’s command at Kanpur, an Aircraft Manufacturing Depot (AMD) was established, which undertook manufacture of Avro aircraft ahead of HAL. AMD also designed and developed two prototypes Kanpur-I and Kanpur-II. The Air Force, however, then decided to close down design and manufacture of aircraft to align with the national objectives.

For an unfathomable reason, the Air Force forgot about Harjinder Singh after his retirement. Having been inducted into the Air Force in early 70s, I have been surprised that we never heard of Harjinder Singh from the senior leadership of the Air Force. In the Officers’ Mess at Nagpur, I chanced upon his biography, ‘’Birth of Air Force’’, when I was posted at Maintenance Command nearly at the end of my career in the Air Force. I have been amazed to meet air warriors posted at Chakeri Kanpur and yet ignorant about Harjinder Singh’s contribution - his backyard, Kanpur had risen to the heights of engineering excellence to become synonymous with the muscle of Indian Air Force.

The story of Engineering in IAF ran parallel with Harjinder Singh’s life till his retirement in 1963 as the first AOC-in-C of Maintenance Command. In six decades after Harjinder Singh, no one has dominated the Air Force engineering arena like him.

Most will recall Air Mshl SS Ramdas for inspiring successive generations of air warriors from all branches of IAF in ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. He chose the option to laterally move as CMD of Indian Airlines, but, not before making the greatest impact on Air Force engineering since Harjinder Singh. He left prematurely because he had to wait in a long queue before reaching the apex level with little time left thereafter – unfortunately the Air Chief who introduced merit along with seniority in the queue system came in a decade too late.

The Air Force has seen unprecedented growth and absorption of new technology in the last 25 years. We have crossed many technological frontiers, especially in the fields of industrial engineering, avionics, software, communication and networking. The world, and the Air Force by consequence, has changed so much that engineering is now a part of life and not an appendage.

Within the Air Force, however, the last two decades have seen a number of disconcerting debates questioning the need for an elaborate engineering infrastructure. Some consider outsourcing a panacea for all problems concerning engineering requirements. The vastness of the essential engineering functions for a globally potent Air Force unfortunately gets obscured by labelling the engineering work force as ‘maintenance men’.

Harjinder Singh wouldn’t know that the adopted name for his profession, ‘Maintenance’ would chain down successive generations.

The Air Force policy of inducting engineers into flying training - beginning with the dynamic Harjinder Singh - also benefitted Ramdas and a few others. Since they appreciated combat flying as much as engineering, they had never to hear what Aspy Engineer (later the Air Chief) had once said. “Harjinder could never appreciate risks and responsibilities of a flying man: If you could fly you would understand”, said Aspy Engineer before Harjinder started flying. This wonderful policy was, however, abolished for inexplicable reasons. Those equipped with engineering as well as flying acumen had perhaps begun to acquire a professional stature well beyond that of a submissive maintenance man.

                                                Air Mshl PV Athawale
                                                Former AOC-in-C Maintenance Command

                                                                                          

References:-

1.    Birth of An Air Force – The Memoirs of Air Vice Marshal Harjinder Singh, edited by Air Cmde AL Saigal - Palit and Palit Publishers (1977).

2.    Spitfire Singh by Mike Edwards MBE - Bloomsburry Publishing India Pvt. Ltd. (2016).