Bluegrass Airlines, March 2011

Indian National Airways ‘50 by Allan Lowson

(copyright www.timetableimages.com)

Indian National Airways

Indian National Airways commenced the first daily service in India, between Calcutta and Dacca on 1 December, 1933.

Indian National Airways, a company based at Delhi, was formed with the dual purpose of operating services of its own and participating, along with the Government of India, as one of two minority shareholders in Indian Trans-Continental Airways. INA began operations of its mail and freight service between Calcutta and Rangoon, and between Calcutta and Dacca (now Bangladesh), with a De Havilland Dragon Aircraft.

In 1953 Indian National Airways and several other independent airlines were nationalised and amalgamated to provide the domestic route service of Indian Airlines.

Indian National Airways Routes

Indian National Airways served routes across the Northern plains of India, broadly following the Imperial Airways route from Europe to Singapore. The times for these flights are taken from the 1950 timetable available at the excellent www.timetableimages.com

Delhi - Calcutta

This route was served by Vickers Viking aircraft.

Heading	Distance	Down	City Name	ICAO	Up	Heading	Distance
117	0	0800	Delhi	VIDP	1745		708 nm
	708 nm	1215	Calcutta	VECC	1315	302	0

Delhi - Karachi

This route was served by Douglas DC-3 aircraft.

Heading	Distance	Down	City Name	ICAO	Up	Heading	Distance
238	0	0815	Delhi	VIDP	1900		257 nm
	257 nm	1015	Jodhpur	VIJO	1700d	056
256		1045d	Jodhpur	VIJO	1630		330 nm
	330 nm	1315	Karachi	OPKC	1400	074	0

Calcutta - Rangoon

This route was served by Vickers Viking and DC-3 aircraft. Arrival and departure times in Burma are shown in Indian time, Burma was an hour ahead.

Heading	Distance	Down	City Name	ICAO	Up	Heading	Distance
127	0	0700	Calcutta	VECC	1440*/1545		554 nm
	554 nm	1100/1025*	Rangoon	OPLA	1115*/1145	309

*Viking aircraft flew the route Tuesdays to Sundays and cruised faster.

Delhi - Lahore

This route was served by DC-3 aircraft.

Heading	Distance	Down	City Name	ICAO	Up	Heading	Distance
322	0	0845	Delhi	VIDP	1245		226 nm
	226 nm	1030	Lahore	OPLA	1100	140	0

Delhi - Srinagar

This route was served by Douglas DC-3 aircraft, and on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays stopped at Amritsar and Jammu en route to Srinagar.

Heading	Distance	Down	City Name	ICAO	Up	Heading	Distance
328	0	0730	Delhi	VIDP	1920		224 nm
	224 nm	0915	Amritsar	VIAR	1735d	146
001		0945d	Amritsar	VIAR	1705		59 nm
	59 nm	1035	Jammu	VIJU	1615d	181
358		1100d	Jammu	VIJU	1550		77 nm
	77 nm	1150	Srinagar	VISR	1500	178	0

Srinagar- Jammu

This route was served by DC-3 aircraft.

Heading	Distance	Down	City Name	ICAO	Up	Heading	Distance
178	0	1140	Srinagar	VISR	1400		77 nm
	77 nm	1230	Jammu	VIJU	1310	358	0

Flight Simulator Files

There is a Vickers Viking by Jens Kristensen available for both FS2004 and FSX in Viking_10.zip and Viking_10x.zip respectively.

Although the DC-3 is not available in an Indian National Airways scheme, the DC-2 is available in a payware package from http://home.hccnet.nl/r.cappers/dc2/ and an Indian National Airways scheme is available from www.flightsim.com in dc2_indi.zip for FS2004 and dc2x_india.zip for FSX. This aircraft was used in the mid-‘40s by Indian National Airways, when the stock of DC-3s was otherwise engaged.

The routes from Karachi through Delhi to Calcutta will have essentially followed those of Indian Trans-Continental Airways, for which an Armstrong Whitworth AW.15 has been produced by Jens and is available in aw15_v3.zip.

Meantime excitement knew no bounds as the author celebrated his birthday in Calcutta some five years later.