My father Mr V G Gadgil (Vithal Govind Gadgil) whom my sister Sandhya, brother Jayprakash and I always called Bappa was one of India’s early aviators. After graduation at Nagpur University he got a job with Hitawada, a local newspaper. Inspired by two pilots, Nevill Vintcent and J S Newall who were going around India giving people aeroplane joyrides VG decided that aviation would be his career.
With help, from a fellow college student and a local entrepreneur Sir Sorabji Mehta Dad (VG) approached Mr Jehangir Tata, better known now as Mr J R D Tata, a young industrialist who wanted to set up an airline. After some protracted negotiation involving Sir Sorabji and JRD Dad got an unpaid job with JRD’s startup company. Dad was eternally grateful to Sir Sorabji for paying him a monthly salary of Rs 25 for nine months after which JRD commenced payment of the same; no doubt Dad had proved his worth.
JRD’s airline, Tata Airlines commenced operations in 1932 with five employees including VG who was the mechanic and engineer although he also had a flying licence. The aircraft initially used were de Havilland Puss Moths. By the time of Dad’s retirement in 1968 the airline had progressed to Boeing 707 jets, was serving globally and VG had been head of Engineering and then Controller of Stores and Purchases.
After leaving Air India Dad worked for eighteen months as Aviation Advisor to the state of Maharashtra before going into full retirement. VG’s daughter, my sister Sandhya Janorkar has written a book about Dad called “The life and times of an aviation legend, V G Gadgil”
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