Mumbai to have aerospace hall

Said to be the first of its kind in the country, the aerospace hall will also include aviation and space history exhibits, archival records, personal memorabilia, oral history, artefacts, photographs, films and biographical files. Besides this, the hall will feature flight simulators, virtual reality and multimedia based demonstrations to educate the over 1.5 lakh students who visit the Nehru centre annually.

It all began when veteran pilots Chanda Sawant Budhabhatti and Mohini Shroff paid a visit to Nehru Centrelate last year. The pilots, who were members of the 99s, an international organisation of women pilots, were in search of an antique Tiger Moth single-engined aircraft which the centre occasionally displayed. The antique aircraft was to be featured in a commemorative stamp on the 50 years of women pilots in the country. "When the centre had few aerospace exhibits, we thought it was time we did something about it," said Mohini Shroff, honorary treasurer of the Indian Women Pilots Association (IWPA).

Then began the process of setting up an advisory committee comprising industrialist and aviators Vijaypat Singhania and Jimmy Guzdar, which culminated in the signing of the MoU between R M Chakraborti, Deputy Director General of the National Council of Science Museums and Chanda Sawant.

Both organisations have already commenced the process of collecting artefacts from organisations like the armed forces, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd and the IITs all over the country. "We will begin talks with flying clubs allover India for contributions to the aerospace hall," said science centre curator G S Rautela.

The aerospace hall will require a budget of Rs 50 lakh, which the organisations hope to collect through voluntary donations. Besides the Tiger Moth, the centre also has in its depository a vintage `Marut’, a 1960s vintage ground attack jet, amongst the first modern fighter aircraft indigenously built in the country.

Amongst the static displays, the prized exhibit will of course be the Puss Moth, in which JRD Tata flew his historic 1932 Mumbai-Karachi flight. The centre hopes to acquire this vintage aircraft from the Delhi Flying Club, where it is presently housed.

Both organisations plan to organise activities like aviation and space seminars, conferences, aviation education programmes for school children, workshops, contests and aero-modelling for students and public to popularise aeronautics and create an interest in aviation.