Wings of Fire (Chapter-II; Creation) by Abdul Kalam

 

About Abdul Kalam: A P J Abdul Kalam was born in 1931 to a little educated family of boat owners in Rameswaram. ‘Wings of Fire’ is a powerful autobiography of courage and belief, as much an individual journey as the saga of India’s search for scientific and technological self-sufficiency. He believed in, “We are born with a divine fire in us. Our efforts should be to give wings to this fire.” The fire to achieve and the wings of determination helped him to climb the ladder of success. Kalam had been previously awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1981, the Padma Vibhushan in 1990, and a recipient of India’s highest Civilian Award, the Bharat Ratna, in 1997. He was sworn in as the Eleventh President of India on 25^th July 2002. He dreamt of transforming India a developed nation by 2020.

Introduction: In Chapter- II, titled “Creation” of Abdul Kalam’s “Wings of Fire”, he discusses how his scientific spirit is lit and moulded in the space exploration agencies like NASA and ISRO. In this chapter, he also discusses how his career as a space-scientist and his personality as an indomitable sage take various turns and twists by the sharp appraisers and intellectuals like Prof. Vikram Sarabhai. As Khalil Gibran says “Bread baked without love is a bitter bread, that feeds but half a man’s hunger”. Kalam felt that those work without their hearts achieve a hallow, half-hearted success that only breeds bitterness within. It is extremely important to become emotionally involved with one’s work, such that any obstruction to the success of that work fills one with grief. With this idea in mind, Kalam had worked untiringly for the development of nation till his death.

Discussion: As a graduate in Aeronautical Engineering, Kalam wanted to realize his dream of flying. So, he applied for a job in Indian Air Force and at the Directorate of Technical Development and Production (DTD & P). Kalam was called for interview at both the places simultaneously. The Air Force authorities called him to Dehradun for an interview. At the Selection Board, the emphasis was on personality, physical fitness and the ability to speak well. Kalm was excited but nervous, determined but anxious, confident but tense. He managed to finish ninth in the batch of 25 candidates, from which eight officers were selected to IAF.

Kalam was utterly disappointed. He had missed an opportunity to join the air force. But on his return to Delhi, he was informed that a new type of target had been taken up at DTD & P (Air) and that he had been included in the design team. He completed this task with the other team members. Then, he undertook a preliminary design study on human centrifuge. Later he carried out the design and development of a vertical take-off and landing platform. Three years passed, the Aeronautical Development establishment was established in Bangalore and Abdul Kalam was posted to the new establishment. Here a project team was formed to design and develop an indigenous hovercraft prototype, a ground equip machine. Kalam was to lead the team with four persons to assist him. He was given a time limit of three years to launch the engineering model.

The project was beyond their capabilities and none of them were experienced in that field. They tried to collect all information about the hovercrafts but there was not much material found on hovercraft nor could they find any person who had the knowledge about the hovercraft. One day, finally, they decided to go ahead with the limited information they had about hovercraft. After spending a few months on the drawing board, they moved on to actual model, part by part, stage by stage, things started moving. Kalam was impressed by this endeavor to produce a wingless, light, swift machine. He feared that with a background such as, from a small town, middle class would shrink from responsibilities and wait for fate or destiny to take its course. M.G.K. Menon was the then Defence Minister of India. He was very much interested in the progress of their small project. He saw it as a stepping stone to India producing Defence equipment within the country. His confidence was a boost to them.

Many of his senior colleagues did not accept Kalam’s inventory pursuit. When the project was one year old, the defence minister came to ADE for his routine visits. Kalam escorted him to their assembly shop. The model was culmination of one year’s untiring effort to develop a practical hovercraft for battlefield application. The minister asked a lot of questions. The hovercraft was christened Nandi. The hovercraft was beyond their expectations. The defence minister V.K. Krishna Menon took a ride in Nandi, with Kalam. The Minister asked Kalam to be the pilot. It was a smooth ride and the Minister was very appreciative. He told Kalam that they have solved the basic problems involved in developing hovercraft. He asked him to develop a more powerful prime mover.

They completed the project ahead of schedule and created a successful working hovercraft. Prof. MGK Menon was the director of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). Kalam received the call from the Indian Committee for Space Research (INCOSPER) to attend interview for the post of a rocket engineer. Kalam went to Bombay to attend the interview, he was relaxed because he did not attempt for the interview. Kalam was interviewed by Prof. Vikram Sarabhai along with Prof. Menon and Mr. Saraf. They were warmth and friendly. There were none of them show the arrogance or the patronizing attitude towards Kalam. Prof. Sarabhai’s questions did not probe Kalam’s Knowledge or skills. Interviewers were looking for the possibilities within Kalam. The entire interview seemed to Kalam a total moment of truth. Kalam was asked stay back for a couple of days. The next day they absorbed Kalam as a rocket engineer at INCOSPAR. It was a breakthrough for a young man could only have dreamed of.

The Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launch Station was further developed in active collaboration with France, the USA and USSR. It was to be the centre of India’s integral national space programme. The real journey however began with the Rohini Sounding Rocket (RSR) programme. This programme was responsible for the development and fabrication of sounding rockets and their associated on-board systems for scientific investigations in India. Under the RSR programme, a family of operational sounding rocket was developed. These rockets had wide ranging capabilities and several hundred such rockets have been launched for various scientific and technological studies. Two Indian rockets were born at Thumba. They were Rohini and Menaka. This was major achievement for Indians. This could be achieved because of the atmosphere of trust created by Prof. Sarabhai at INCOSPAR.

The development of these rockets made India capable of producing fully indigenous sounding rockets. This could be seen as the revival of 18^th century vision of Tippu Sultan. When Tippu Sultan was killed, the British forces captured more than 700 rockets and the subsystem of 900 rockets. These rockets were taken to England and were subjected to reverse engineering. With the death of Tippu Sultan, Indian rocketry came to a standstill. Rocketry was reborn in India, thanks to the technological vision of our late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Prof. Vikram Sarabhai. Their vision was very clear if India was to play a meaningful role in the community of nation, which must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies. Prof. Sarabhai was keen on trying novel ideas and liked to rope in young people to do this. He had the wisdom to judge people. Abdul Kalam felt that he was an innovator. INCOSPAR was filled with young and inexperienced but energetic and enthusiastic persons, who had been given the task of shaping the Indian spirit of self-reliance in Science and Technology. This was an example of leadership by trust.

Prof. Sarabhai assigned to Kalam the task of providing interface support to payload scientists. Almost all physical laboratories in India were involved in the sounding rocket programme each having its own mission, its own objective and its own payload. It was his presence that would fill them with enthusiasm. They wanted to show something new to Prof. Sarabhai. Prof. Sarabhai believed in an open and free exchange of views. He felt that without collective understanding of a problem, effective leadership was impossible in a team. Prof. Sarabhai took a series of decisions that were to become the life mission of many scientists in India. He wanted to create new frontiers in the field of science and technology in India. He made own payload. This was a tedious task. Abdul Kalam had to X-ray payloads to look at stars, payloads to analyse the gas composition of the upper atmospheric payloads to explore the layers of atmosphere. He had to interact with payload scientists from India and abroad.

Abdul Kalam was very much impressed by Prof. Oda’s work. Prof. Oda was an X-ray payload scientist from the Institute of Space and Aeronautical Sciences, Japan. The X-ray payloads he brought were to be engineered by his team to fit into the nose cone of the Rohini. One day, Abdul Kalam was working on the integration of Prof. Oda’s payload with his timer devices, Prof. Oda insisted on using his timer devices. But Kalam thought it look flimsy and so Prof. Oda stuck to his decision and the timer devices were replaced. The rocket took off elegantly, but reported mission failure because of timer malfunction. Prof. Oda was so upset that tears filled in his eyes. Kalam was involved with building subsystems like payloads housing and Jettisonable nose cones. Working with the nose cones Abdul Kalam was led into the field of composite materials.

Prof. Sarabhai had developed trust in them. Prof. Sarabhai was very optimistic. If he goes to Thumba, would electrify the people with unceasing activity. People would work around the clock in their enthusiasm to show Prof. Sarabhai something new, something that had not been done before in our country. Prof. Sarabhai took a series of decisions that were to become the life-mission of many scientists and he wanted to create new frontiers in the field of science and technology in India. After the successful launch of Nike-Apache he shared his dream with his team members of an Indian satellite launch vehicle (SLV). His decision to make our own SLVs and our own satellites too simultaneously was remarkable one.

In February 1969, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visited Thumba and dedicated TERLS to International Space Community. She also commissioned India’s first filament winding machine in their laboratory. In 1969, Prof. Sarabhai decided to plunge ahead in building and launching our own satellites. He chose the east coast, so that vehicle could take the advantage of the earth’s west to east coast rotation. He finally selected Sriharikota Island, a hundred kilometers north of Madras. Thus, SHAR Rocket Launch Station was born. This Island was crescent shaped and had a maximum width of eight kilometers. It was along side the east coast line. It was the size of Chennai. In 1968, Indian Rocket Society was formed. Prof. Sarabhai had picked a few scientists to give form to his dream of an Indian SLV. It came to be known as SLV – 3. Kalam felt honoured to be chosen as the Project Leader. He was also given the additional responsibility of designing the fourth stage of SLV-3.

Kalam was not a perfectionist. He preferred to learn by making mistakes. For that matter, he did not want to commit mistakes necessarily. He supported learning of his team members through successful and unsuccessful attempts. Kalam laid the foundation for stage-IV on two rocks. His team members carried on the work. He was sorry that he could not spend enough time with them. At this stage, a professor from France, Dr. Curian, President of CNSE (Center Nationale de Etudes Spatiales). At France, they were developing the Diamont Launch Vehicles. Dr. Curian was a thorough professional. He helped Kalam in realizing his target. Dr. Curian was so impressed by their plan that he inquired if they could create the Diamont’s fourth stage.

Work on Diamont’s fourth stage began simultaneously. Abdul Kalam gave instructions in writing. He wanted the team to meet once in a week. Dr. Curian was very appreciative. He said that they had achieved everything in a year’s time, what their counterpart could hardly manage in three years. A good leader commands commitment and participation on his team. He has to get the team together to share whatever little development has been achieved. The slight loss of time was the very small price to pay for that commitment and sense of teamwork. Kalam could spot out good leadership qualities in his small group of workers. They existed in all levels. Kalam continued to observe his colleagues carefully if they had the interest and willingness to experiment. He also started to listen and observe anyone who showed the slightest promise.

Kalam continued to work towards modifying SLV-3’s stage IV design to suit the Diamont airframe. After two years, when they were about the deliver it to CNES, the French suddenly cancelled the programme, saying they did not need our design any more. This was a great shock to Kalam and his team. Kalam got over this disappointment, as he was busy with RATO. On one occasion, Prof. Sarabhai identified a person who could be given the responsibility for developing a tele-command system for SLV-3. Two men were competent to carry out this task- Prof. U.R. Rao and Prof. G. Madhavan Nair.

Abdul Kalam was impressed by Madhavan Nair’s dedication and abilities. He went out of his way to demonstrate his highly reliable tele-command system. Prof. Sarabhai was impressed. He later on became the Director of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). Abdul Kalam was totally involved in SLV-3 project. SLV-3 was taking shape. Kalam’s team was trekking towards success on several individual paths. The emphasis was on communication particularly within the team. While working on SLV-3, Kalam was able to define the problem and solve them through effective communication.

Abdul Kalam reached Trivandrum, as he was supposed to meet Prof. Sarabhai at the airport. As he reached Trivandrum, there was a pall of gloom that hung in the airport. Unfortunately, Prof. Sarabhai had passed away early that morning, following a cardiac arrest. Prof. Sarabhai was the Mahatma of Indian Science. His vision defined the country’s space programme. He generated leadership qualities and inspired them through both ideas and examples. He had trained many scientists and engineers who were later to take charge of important scientific projects. As a tribute to the man, who tailed hard for its existence, the whole complex at Thumba was merged together to form an integrated space center and named it as Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre.

Conclusion: Thus, in Chapter-II titled “Creation” of Wings of Fire, Kalam expresses his great gratitude to the famous personalities like Prof. Vikram Sarabhai, Prof. Oda, Dr. Curian, Prof. U.R. Rao and Prof. G. Madhavan Nair who have moulded his scientific spirit. In fact, he thankfully says that they are the real root-cause for his development into a rocket scientist. They also helped him develop his communication skills and leadership quality. Above all, he commemorates the good-wills and the enthusiasm of Indian political leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and MGK Menon in this part of the book, for their dream of making India into a ‘self-sufficient’ nation, in the field of science and technology.