AFVOA Newletters of Year 2002

Page 33 of 84 d) Lt Col TK Vijayarangan, Arty Cdr VSP Mudaliar <Illegible> would not be recognized as one in a mixed gathering, easily passing off as one in his sixties. He is of trim figure with an erect bearing, and is always properly turned out the stated his career studying aeronautical engineering in the UK, where he obtained his <Illegible> in 1940 as an apprentice, serving under the famous Sir Frank Whittle, the inventor of the jet engine. The year 1944 saw him at Ambala as a Fg Offr. Came 1947, and the<Illegible>, with the officer being instrumental in saving the life of the then Sqn Idr Arjan Singh’s mother at Sialkot. With Independence, came a change of service to the RIAF In the same year, he was deputed to St Thomas Mount in Madras to receive 100 De Havilland Mosquito lighter bombers, and destroy all of these winged wooden wonders to prevent them from falling into the hands of a free India. However, “VSP” managed to salvage whole engines etc, and send them back to Air HQ. Similarly, in what must have been a heart wrenching operation, he was ordered to destroy a very large complement of Catalina flying boats based at the Red Hills Lake by drilling their hulls and allowing water in. When on this Madras assignment, he remembers the bombers of the SEAC (South East Asia Command) undertaking landing and take off at the PSP sheet covered runway at Arakonam, which today has one of the most modern and longest concrete runways, and is an Naval Air Station. VSP was posted at Air Hq between 1948 and early 1953. Towards the end of 1952, VSP Mudaliar was asked by the legendary Air Cmde Mehar Singh to take over the Nizam of Hyderabad’s Deccan Airways for the IAF. In this assignment, he had to interact with a Rolls Royce engineer named Goddey. As a Flt Lt at Air HQ, posted as DAD of Transport, he had the honour of raising an independent MT organisation for the Indian Air Force, when, the then MGO, Brig Worthington, handed over a Humber saloon. VSP established the MT Depots at Palam and Avadi, allotted numbers to the vehicles, and was instrumental in authoring Technical Staff Instructions (TSI) Vol VI, a publication relating to MT, which remains almost unaltered to this day in its latest avatars. In Feb of 1953, it was decided that the Indian Navy was to have a fleet air arm. VSP was the man of choice from the technical side for the establishment. It look some persuading of the powers that be to ensure that Flt Lt Mudaliar transferred to the Navy with his seniority protected. Thus it was that Lt Cdr VSP Mudaliar landed up in his new uniform at the RN base at Portsmouth for the naval induction course, which was conducted on board HMS Crie (this ship is afloat even to this day for conducting the courts martial of the RN). The first types of aircraft equipping the Indian Naval fleet air arm were the Sealand and the Firefly. In 1953, Lt Cdr Mudaliar was handed over a complement of 12 Sealands by the manufacturers, and asked to select 10 out of them for the IN. IIM aircraft carrier Hercules had been bought by India, and was to undergo a refit over the next 15-18 months, before induction to the Indian Navy as INS Vikrant. It Cdr Mudaliar was actively involved with the technical aspects of the fitting out, working up and induction of the aircraft carrier the Vikrant embarked Sea Hawk aircraft, which joined the Navy in 1957. Earlier, whilst in England, Cdr Mudaliar with the permission of the Indian Government, obtained his Pilot Proficiency License (PPL) with a passenger endorsement and an instrument flying category, and was also permitted to buy an aircraft (readers of today would be amazed that a serving officer could buy an aircraft!!) He was, by virtue of this qualification, allowed to test aircraft after snag rectification. Back in India in 1957, he took part in the joint Royal Navy - Indian Navy exercises off <Illegible>. In 1960, at Cochin, when a few Sea Hawks needed rectification while still under warranty from the British manufactures, permission was granted to Cdr Mudaliar and his learn to ship the aircraft. They subsequently made it air worthy and eventually, developed expertise to carry out complete overhaul of the aircraft. In 1962, Cdr Mudaliar was posted to INS Shivaji, at Lonavala, to train Engine Room Artificers (FRAs) in both marine as well as aeronautical aspects. In 1966,