In conversation with India's Oldest Fighter Pilot - Squadron Leader (retd.) Dalip Singh Majithia, who turns 100 today
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. Dalip Singh Majithia retired as a Squadron Leader in the Indian Air Force in August 1947. On August 5, 1940, a young Sikh pilot took off on his first training flight in a Tiger Moth aircraft from the Walton airfield in Lahore with his two British instructors. 17 days later, Dalip Singh Majithia, then just 20, flew 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 on the Burma front during the Second World War to becoming 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. On 23...