Wings of Fire by APJ Abdul Kalam

Wings of Fire

Chapters 17-20
1. Why did the author decide that the burial of the Devil was essential for the rise of hope and vision’ in DRDL? How did he intend to achieve this?

Abdul Kalam visited DRDL in April 1982 to acquaint himself with the worksite. SL. Bansal, Director of DRDL introduced all employees in the laboratory to Kalam. Meanwhile Anna University in Madras conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Science on Kalam. Anna University recognized his efforts in the field of rocketry. The honorary degree was awarded at a convocation presided over by Prof. Ramanna.

Kalam took over the job at DRDL in June 1982. Very soon, he realized that the laboratory was still haunted by the winding up of the Devil missile. It was essential to the burial of the Devil and rise to hope and vision.

Kalam’s first few months were largely interactive. He explained about the goals to his subordinates. He was astonished to see the determination of the DRDL workforce. They were eager to go ahead.

In order to speed up the pace of R & D activities at DRDL, a decision on vital scientific, technical and technological problems had to be taken quickly. So his major decision was to create a scientist forum. Thus, a high level body called the Missile Technology Committee was formed.

After days of debate and thinking, the long term guided missile development programme was drawn up.

“The great thing in the world is not knowing so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.”

The determination to win should be our driving force.

Under the chairmanship of Kalam, a Committee was constituted to draw up a clear well defined missile development programme. The estimated expenditure was Rs.390 crore, spread over a period of 12 years.

Development programme take a long time to reach the production stage because of lack of funds. DRDL was known for its pioneering work in the field of anti-tank missiles. They proposed to develop a third generation anti-tank guided missile having ‘fire and forget’ capabilities.

Kalam made a presentation to the government. Dr. Arunachalam encouraged him and answered the question asked by the Defence Minister. Basically, every one was excited at the idea of India having her own missile system. The then Defence Minister R. Venkataraman was ready to allocate the required amount. In fact he suggested that they launch an integrated GMDP, instead of making missiles in phases. This was a very exciting challenge.


2. Describe briefly how the GMDP became the Integrated GMDP or IGMDP.

Abdul Kalam was astonished to see the determination of the DRDL workforce. They were eager to go ahead. Thus, a high level body called the Missile Technology Committee was formed. After days of debate and thinking, the long term guided missile development programme was drawn up.

“The great thing in the world is not knowing so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.”

The determination to win should be our driving force

Under the chairmanship of Kalam, a Committee was constituted to draw up a clear well defined missile development programme. The estimated expenditure was Rs.390 crore, spread over a period of 12 years.

Development programme take a long time to reach the production stage because of lack of funds. DRDL was known for its pioneering work in the field of anti-tank missiles. They proposed to develop a third generation anti-tank guided missile having ‘fire and forget’ capabilities.

Kalam made a presentation to the government. Dr. Arunachalam encouraged him and answered the question asked by the Defence Minister. Basically, every one was excited at the idea of India having her own missile system. The then Defence Minister R. Venkataraman was ready to allocate the required amount. In fact he suggested that they launch an integrated GMDP, instead of making missiles in phases. This was a very exciting challenge.

The Defence Minister sanctioned an unprecedented amount of Rs.338 crores. Thus, India’s prestigious integrated guided missile development programme (IGDMP) was born. The DRDL was full of fire and action.

The surface to surface weapon system became Prithvi (earth) and tactical core vehicle was called Trishul (the trident of Shiva). The surface-to-air area defence system was named Akash (sky) and the anti-tank missile project became Nag (cobra). Kalam’s long cherished dream of REX had given Agni (fire).

Dr. Arunachalam launched IGMDP on 27th July, 1983. It was a great event and a large number of scientists, professors, representatives of the armed forces and people from the production centers and inspection authorities were present on this occasion.

The launch of IGMDP was like a bright flash on the Indian scientific firmament. People were now curious to see how India was going to achieve all that was promised.


3. What were the qualities that Dr. Kalam was looking for in the leaders of missile projects?

The launch of IGMDP was like a bright flash on the Indian scientific firmament. People were now curious to see how India was going to achieve all that was promised. The most important task for Kalam was the selection of project directors to lead individual missile projects. DRDL had a large pool of highly talented people but unfortunately egotistical. Kalam wanted to right type of leaders who could visualize the goal and channelise the energies of the team members working at different work centers.

The wrong choice of leaders would jeopardize the entire future of programme. Many of Kalam’s senior colleagues befriend to him at this time. He respected their concerns since he wanted to do something best interest of the organization.

Kalam’s search for someone to lead the Prithvi project eneded with Col. V.J. Sundaram, who belonged to the EME corps of the Indian Army. He had an extraordinary capability to evaluate alternative ways of operation. He would suggest moving forward in new terrains. He knew Col. Sundaram would be the ideal choice.

For Trishul, he wanted some one who had a sound knowledge of electronics and missile warfare. He also wanted him to communicate these complexities to the team in order to promote understanding and support. He found in Commodore SR Mohan, from the Indian Navy, a talent for detail and an almost magical power of persuasion.

Agni was his dream project, and he wanted to select some one who would telerate his occasional meddling while running the project. He selected R.N. Agrawal, an alumnus of MIT, with brilliant academic record. He had been managing the aeronautical test facilities at DRDL.

Due to technological complexities, Akash and Nag were considered as missile of the future. Therefore he selected relatively young Prahalad and N.R. Iyer.


4. How did the author bring about the ‘infusion of young blood’ into the IGMDP? How did this make a difference to the working atmosphere, according to him?

The missile had partners in design, development and production. 12 academic institutions and 30 laboratories like DRDO, CSIR, and ISRO participated. There were more the fifty professors and one hundred research scholars worked on the missile.

Between April-June 1984, Kalam and his team of six members visited many campuses and enlisted young graduates, aspiring students and requested them to participate in the programme. They expected around 300 young engineers to join the laboratory.

India carried out its first nuclear explosion in 1974. We were the sixth country in the world to explode a nuclear device.

Around this time, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated. This was followed by widespread violence and riots. A curfew was imposed in the city of Hyderabad.

Mrs. Gandhi’s death was a tremendous loss to the scientific community. When her son Rajiv Gandhi took over, he was able to carry forward the policies of his mother.

Rajiv Gandhi laid the foundation stone for Research Centre Imarat (RCI) on 3rd August, 1985.

The young scientists whom they had recruited changed the dynamics of DRDL. They were quick enough to grasp the importance of their work. The young scientist’s negative attitude changed to positive. Even older scientists were rejuvenated by being a part of a young team.

Kalam encouraged the young scientists. He asked them to present their team’s work. Gradually, an atmosphere of confidence grew. Young scientists started questioning senior colleagues on solid technical issues. The work environment was lively, with a good blend of the experience of the older scientists and the innovation of their younger colleagues. This relationship had created very productive work culture at DRDL.


5. The author attributes rapid and proactive follow-up as an important managerial tactic. Write a paragraph to state your views on how this can make a difference.

After the successful completion, VSSC had to re-organize its resources and redefine its goal. Abdul Kalam was relieved of project activities. He took up the position of Director, Aerospace Dynamics and Design Group. New sites were identified at Vaattiyoorkavu and Valimala where the activities of VSSC were expanded. Fresh planning and analysis, especially of facilities, started. Soon it paved way for now formula and of re-entry experiment (REX), which much later on became Agni.

The work on the project spread fast. The appraisals for nearly 500 scientists became more and more difficult. Kalam had to write confidential reports. Many people thought that he was granting promotion to only those whom he favoured. Kalam tried to be fair judge.

It was difficult to judge an individual. Many people have intention of doing particular job. Many of them do their work in the manner of their convenient, and leave for home in the evening with a sense of satisfaction. They fail to evaluate their performance, only their intensions. Any delay caused is due to reasons beyond their controls.

Kalam, as a young scientist, wanted to more than what he was at the moment. He wanted to learn more, express more. He never used any influence to advance his career. Kalam says, “The key to my motivation has always been to look at how far I had still to go, rather than how far I had come.”

APJ Abdul Kalam Wings of Fire

Wings of Fire

Chapters 13-16


1. Write briefly about Wernher von Braun’s achievements. (OR)

2. What does the author have to say about ‘flow’ while working?

After returning from France, Kalam was informed that Wernhor von Braun was visiting Thumba. Everybody working in rocketing knew von Braun, who made the lethal V-2 missiles that destroyed London in World War-II. As a tribute to his genius, von Braun was given a top position in the rocketry programme at NASA. He produced the landmark Jupiter missile while working for US Army.

The V-2 missile was a greatest single achievement of von Braun. In August 1942, it became the first missile to exceed the speed of sound. Von Braun was a scientist, designer, production engineer, administrator and technology manger all rolled in one.

As he was taking to him, he knew he had met another Prof. Vikram Sarabhai. His words left a lasting impression on Kalam.

“Do not make rocketry your profession or your livelihood- make it your religion, your mission”.

With the three deaths in his family, he decided to plunge into the creation of SLV-3. Kalam believed that he must have single-minded devotion to reach the goal. Individuals like him are often called as workaholics.

The desire to work at optimum capacity leaves hardly any room for anything else. Kalam was always scoffed at for working 40 hours a week, but he knew people who worked 60, 80, and even 100hours a week, because they found their work exciting and rewarding. Total commitment is the common denominator among all successful men and women.

Once you have total commitment to your work- you also need good health and boundless energy.

Abdul Kalam felt the ‘flow’ of work as an overwhelming and joyous experience while working. It is a sensational experience when we act with total commitment.

When we are totally committed, action follows action according to an internal logic. There is no hurry and there are no disturbing demands on one’s attention. The distinction between the self and the activity disappears.

All of them working on SLV were experiencing flow. With this flow, they were able to achieve difficult target they had set.

As the work progressed he felt a tremendous surge of confidence- he was in complete control over himself and over the SLV-3 project.

The first requirement to get into flow is to work hard as you can at something that presents a challenge. Though it may not be an overwhelming challenge, it must make you feel that you are performing a task better today then yesterday.

“Another requirement for in flow is the availability of a significant span of uninterrupted time.” Kalam felt this was difficult as he was unable to concentrate fully without being disturbed.

He has been in laboratory for many days without knowing the time. Some days, the team members and Kalam were so involved in the work that the lunch hour slipped by without even being conscious that they were hungry.


3. What happened at the launch of SLV-3 on 10 August 1979? How did the author react?

The first experimental flight trail of SLV-3 was scheduled on 10th August 1979. The primary goals of the mission were to realize a fully integrated launch vehicle and to evaluate on board system as well as the ground system. The four stage SLV, 23 meter long, weighing 17 tonnes. It took of elegantly at 0708hours and immediately started following its programmed trajectory.

Stage I and Stage II was performed to perfection. But suddenly at the end of Stage II, the vehicle went out of control, the vehicle crashed into sea 560 km off Sriharikota.

Abdul Kalam and his teammates were disappointed, angry and frustrated. Over the years, Kalam had learnt carry on with the disappointments. It was a day of misery. Completely drained both mentally and physically, Kalam went straight into his room and slumped into the bed.

Dr. Brahm Prakash woke hip up in the evening and asked about going to lunch. Kalam was touched by his affection and concern. During the meal, he carefully avoided the topic of SLV-3 later on he explained that the whole team was behind him in this moment of misery.

A post flight review was held, which was attended by more than seventy scientists. They were eager to pin point the mistakes. It was established that the mishap had occurred in the failure of Stage II’s control system. No control system was available at this stage and hence the vehicle got out of control.

The findings were presented to Prof. Dhawan at a meeting. Kalam took the full responsibility of the failure and offered to resign by Prof. Dhawan left the place saying that he would like to put Kalam into orbit.

Early in November 1979, Brahm Prakash retired. He had always been his sheet-anchor. He believed in team spirit and had inspired the management pattern for the SLV project, which later became the blue print for all scientific projects in the country.


4. What were some of VSSC’s goals after the successful launch of SLV-3?

The SLV-3 launch was on 17th July, 1980. The newspapers were filled with all kinds of predictions.

Many newspapers clearly explained the history of SLV-3 and how the rocket nosedived into the sea. This launch was important in its own way. It was the future of the Indian Space Programme.

In the early hours of 18th July, 1980 at 0830 hours to be precise, India’s first satellite launch vehicle lifted off from SHAR.

As the vehicle took off the staffs were jubilant. The whole nation was excited. India had entered the small group of nations that had possessed satellite launch capabilities. It was both the culmination of a national dream and the beginning of a very important phase in our nation’s history.

The credit for the successful SLV-3 flight goes to the pillars of Indian space programme - Prof. Sarabhai in particular and hundred of VSSC Scientists and to Prof. Dhawan and Prof. Brahm Prakash.

Abdul Kalam was very happy at this success but was sad because he did not have his parents, brother-in-law and Prof. Sarabhai to share the success with him.

After a month, the Nehru Space Center arranged his meeting with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. A meeting of the parliamentary panel on science and technology, chaired by the Prime Minister, was scheduled. Prof. M G K Menon and Dr. Nag Chaudhari were also present.

The Prime Minister congratulated the team and asked Kalam to speak a few words. He spoke about the rocket system and about its speed. There was a thunderous applause and the entire room spread with happiness.

After the successful completion, VSSC had to re-organise its resources and redefine its goals. Kalam was relieved of project activities. He took up the position of Director, Aerospace Dynamics and Design Group. New sites were identified at Vaattiyoorkavu and Valaimala where the activities of VSSC were expanded. Fresh planning and analysis, especially of facilities, started. Soon it paved way for new formula and of Re-entry experiment (REX), which, after wards became Agni.


5. How did the success of SLV-3 change the equilibrium in the author’s position in ISRO?

The next SLV-3 flight SLV3-D1 took off on 31st May, 1981. Kalam had the opportunity of witnessing the launch from the gallery. He had become the focus of media attention and it had aroused the envy of his senior colleagues.

Abdul Kalam’s life was not that of a ruthless achiever. The SLV-3 was made through a collective effort. He felt bad about this sense of envy and bitterness.

In January 1981, he was invited by Dr. Bhagiratha Rao of High Altitude laboratory in Dehradun to give a lecture on SLV-3.

The renowned nuclear scientist, Prof. Raja Ramanna, presided over the gathering. He spoke of India’s efforts at generating nuclear energy and the challenge in conducting the first nuclear test for peaceful purposes.

Prof. Ramanna was genuinely pleased at meeting Kalam. Then he came to the point.

The Devil missile programme had been shelved in spite of tremendous achievements made by Narayanan and his team at DRDL. Prof. Ramanna asked if Kalam would be interested to join DRDL and shoulder the responsibility of shaping their guided missile development programme.

Abdul Kalam felt honoured with such a proposal. Prof. Ramanna had been the guiding spirit behind the Pokhran nuclear test (in 1974). Kalam met Prof. Dhawan and told him of Prof. Ramanna’s request. Kalam had nearly worked for eighteen years at ISRO and now he was sad to leave it.

Meanwhile Abdul Kalam was awarded Padma Bhushan in 1981. This brought about mixed feelings at VSSC. Some were envious while some unduly singled out for recognition.

APJ Abdul Kalam

Chapters 9 – 12

1. Why was Sriharikota chosen to be the site of the rocket launch station?


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 from her 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.

The SLV was slowly taking shape. Thumba was now a perfect launch pad for SLV. On one occasion, Prof. Sarabhai identified a person who could be given the responsigbility 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).

2. Prof. Vikram Sarabhai was the author’s mentor. What does he say about Sarabhai’s contribution to Indian Science programmes? Use the successful testing of RATO from Chapter 10 to give an example.


Prof. Sarabhai thought that mistakes were inevitable but manageable. To illustrate, once he came to Thumba, on one of his routine visits, he was shown the operation of the nose cone jettisoning mechanism. Prof. Sarabhai was asked to formally activate the system. To their horror, when he pressed the button, there wasn’t any reaction.

They asked him to wait for a few minutes, while they re-forged some connections. When he pressed the button for a second time, the pyros were fired and the nose cone was jettisoned.

Prof. Sarabhai congratulated them. He then called Kalam and talked to him of rock launching station, facilities like launch pad, block houses, radar, telementary and so on. Slowly he brought about the incident that took place, when he had gone to activate the system. In spite of reprimanding him, he went directly to solve the problem. They lacked a single roof to carry out system integration of all rockets and rocket systems. At last he took up a decision to set up Rocket Engineering Section. Prof. Sarabhai was a vision. He could use errors to encourage new ideas. The failure led to the birth of a rocket engineering laboratory.

Abdul Kalam used to brief Prof. Sarabhai after every missile panel meeting. After one such meeting, Prof. Sarabhai was visiting Thumba to review the SLV design.

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.

The RATO system was successfully tested on 8th October 1972 at Bareilly Air Force Station in Uttar Pradesh. The Indian RATO was produced at Rs. 17,000 a piece, while it was imported at a cost of Rs. 33,000 a piece. The vision of Prof. Sarabhai had finally comes fruit.

3. What, according to the author, does one need to be a successful team leader?

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 Madras.

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 from her 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.

Abdul 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.

Abdul 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.

Abdul Kalam got over this disappointment, as he was busy with RATO.

The SLV was slowly taking shape. Thumba was now a perfect launch pad for SLV. On one occasion, Prof. Sarabhai identified a person who could be given the responsigbility 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).


4. ‘SLVs and missiles can be called first cousins’ Describe how?


A massive missile development project had been taken up by DRDO at Defence Research and Development Laboratory, Hyderabad. It was the development of surface-to-air missile.

The RATO project was abandoned and Narayanan was chosen as the leader of DRDO, to make new missile. Narayanan was a man of tremendous energy. He gathered around him a strong group of enthusiastic people.

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 slove them through effective communication. At one of the space science council review meetings, Kalam quite frustrated with procurement delays, complained agitatedly about the bureaucracy practiced by the Controller of Accounts and Financial Adviser of VSSC. Dr. Brahm Prakash was surprised by such blunt accusations.

5. The author makes an interesting differentiation between communication and conversation. What does he say? Elaborate on this in your own words.

Abdul Kalam explained the differentiation between communication and conversation, where as he was a good communicator but a terrible conversationalist.

Communication can define as the exchange of information between individuals through a common system of symbols. It is a two party affair which aims at passing on or receiving a specific piece of information. Most of the people did not get communication because they confuse with conversation.

Conversation has full of friendly remarks and informal way of talking, it lacks any useful information. Kalam was a terrible conversationalist.

APJ Abdul Kalam

Chapters 5 – 8

1. Why was the Nandi project abandoned?

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen 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-sufficiently. 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.

Abdul Kalam had been previously awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1981, the Padma Vibhushan (country’s second highest civilian award) in 1990, and a recipient of India’s highest Civilian Awad, the Bharat Ratna, in 1997. He served as principal scientific adviser to the Government of India from 1999 to 2001. He served the nation as President of India (first citizen of India) from 2002 to 2007. He dreamt of transforming India a developed nation by 2020. Presently, he has been working as a Professor at Anna University, Chennai since 2007.

It was his first experience living in an Industrial Town, Kanpur was heavily populated. It was total contrast to Rameswaram. Kalm felt that a kind of loneliness prevailed in the city. Many people had come to the city in search of jobs.

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 his-a person who has come from a small town, middle class would shrink from responsibilities and wait for fate or destiny to take its course.

V.K. Menon was the then Defence Minister of India. He was very much interested in the progess of their samall 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. Dr. O.P. Mediratta, Director of ADE, was pleased with his work. But, unfortunately V.K.K. Menon was out of office and could not take his promised second ride. However, the project was mired in controversy and was finally shelved.


2. What was special about the author’s interview at INCOSPAR?


Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen 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-sufficiently. 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.

Abdul Kalam had been previously awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1981, the Padma Vibhushan (country’s second highest civilian award) in 1990, and a recipient of India’s highest Civilian Awad, the Bharat Ratna, in 1997. He served as principal scientific adviser to the Government of India from 1999 to 2001. He served the nation as President of India (first citizen of India) from 2002 to 2007. He dreamt of transforming India a developed nation by 2020. Presently, he has been working as a Professor at Anna University, Chennai since 2007.
.

Dr. Mediratta brought Prof. MGK Menon to hovercraft- a tall, handsome, bearded man. He asked me several questions about the machine. Prof. MGK Menon enquired me ‘Can you give me a ride in the machine?’.

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. Memon 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.
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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.

3. “Bread baked without love is a bitter bread, that feeds but half a man’s hunger”. How does the author use the quote in the context of work?

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen 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-sufficiently. 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.

Abdul Kalam awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1981, the Padma Vibhushan (country’s second highest civilian award) in 1990, and a recipient of India’s highest Civilian Awad, the Bharat Ratna, in 1997. He served as principal scientific adviser to the Government of India from 1999 to 2001. He served the nation as President of India (first citizen of India) from 2002 to 2007. He dreamt of transforming India a developed nation by 2020. Presently, he has been working as a Professor at Anna University, Chennai since 2007.

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.

The development of these rockets made India capable of producing fully indigenous sounding rockets. This could be seen as the revival of 18th 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 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.

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. If you are in any profession but wish you were in some other profession then your success will be limited. 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.

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. Kalam thought it look flimsy but 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.

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.

Rohini-75 rocket was lanunched from TERLS on 20th November 1967.

4. What programme did Professor Vikram Sarabhai visualize almost simultaneously with the SLV project?
Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen 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-sufficiently. 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.

Abdul Kalam awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1981, the Padma Vibhushan (country’s second highest civilian award) in 1990, and a recipient of India’s highest Civilian Awad, the Bharat Ratna, in 1997. He served as principal scientific adviser to the Government of India from 1999 to 2001. He served the nation as President of India (first citizen of India) from 2002 to 2007. He dreamt of transforming India a developed nation by 2020. Presently, he has been working as a Professor at Anna University, Chennai since 2007.

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 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 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.

Prof. Sarabhai discussed about the matter threadbare with scientists who are working in various organizations and at different locations.

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.



5. Describe the situation at INCOSPER in the early sixties.

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen 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-sufficiently. 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.

Abdul Kalam awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1981, the Padma Vibhushan (country’s second highest civilian award) in 1990, and a recipient of India’s highest Civilian Awad, the Bharat Ratna, in 1997. He served as principal scientific adviser to the Government of India from 1999 to 2001. He served the nation as President of India (first citizen of India) from 2002 to 2007. He dreamt of transforming India a developed nation by 2020. Presently, he has been working as a Professor at Anna University, Chennai since 2007.

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.

In early sixties, the situation at INCOSPAR was filled 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 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 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. He says ‘My job is to make decisions; but it is equally important to see that these decisions are accepted by the team members’.

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.