Aeronautical engineer N.S. Prabhakar Naidu (83), a doyen among the first batch of aeronautical engineers to graduate from the Madras Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1952, passed away in Seattle, United States on 6 August 2011. N.S. Prabhakar Naidu was a distinguished technocrat who innovative concepts that contributed to advanced aircraft design, performance, safety and reliability.
Prabhakar Naidu had worked with renowned and reputed aircraft manufacturers such as Handley Page in England in building the Herald passenger aircraft structures, Beverly air freighters and Buccaneer naval jet fighters. He flight-tested the well known Folland Gnat jet fighters. He worked with Short brothers in Ireland where he was into flight-testing and performance-analysing the Royal Air Force's turbo fighter Belfast.
The Folland Gnat, developed for the Royal Air Force, became well known as the mount for the RAF's Red Arrows aerobatic team and was first exported to Finland, Yugoslavia and India. In later years, the Indian Air Force became its largest operator and eventually manufactured the aircraft under licence before developing Ajit, a modified and improved variant.
He worked with Boeing in Seattle in the US and generated the FAA approved performance Flight Manuals for the famous fleet of B727, B737 and the B747. These aircraft needed to be flight-tested prior to sale to commercial airlines.
He taught Aircraft Design and Production at the MIT and successfully flight-tested the first Sail Plane designed in India by a team of students and staff of the MIT.
Comments
All Comments (0)
Join the conversation