On August 5, 1940, a young Sikh pilot took off on his first training flight in a Tiger Moth aircraft from Walton Airfield in Lahore with his two British instructors.
17 days later, Dalip Singh Majithia, then only 20, made his first solo flight, a flight that paved the way for a lifetime in aviation, first in the Air Force and then as a private pilot.
Along the way, Majithia had his share of adventures as a fighter pilot flying the legendary Hawker Hurricane across the Burma front during World War II to become the first person to land a plane in the Kathmandu Valley several decades later.
Tomorrow, Dalip Singh Majithia, who retired as a Squadron Leader in the Indian Air Force in August 1947, the year of our independence, turns 100 years old.
He is the oldest living fighter pilot in India.
"I still feel like I'm there when I meet officers [from the Indian Air Force]," says squad leader Majithia (retired). "My group of people is no longer there, we used to have our meetings on August 1 of each year for some time."
His story has been described as "a story of faith, courage and adventure" by Pushpinder Singh Chopra, the leading aerospace historian in India. When he graduated as a pilot, he was good enough to be considered the best pilot of his course.
Squadron leader Majithia (retired) went on to fly multiple aircraft with the Indian Air Force during the pre-independence period, including Westland Wapiti IIA, Hawker Audax, and Hart, which outfitted Squad No. 1, the only squadron of the IAF at that time.
After initially being assigned to Coastal Defense Flights where he flew maritime patrols over the Bay of Bengal, he was reassigned to Squadron No. 6, the Indian Air Force, which was shortlisted to operate one of the world's most advanced aircraft in the time, the legendary Hawker Hurricane.
"It was a lovely plane. The hurricane is well known because it won the Battle of Britain and we highly respected them because it had a great engine," says squad leader Majithia. "I used to love this plane. It was very difficult. They used to say, 'You can hit a tree' and still come back."
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