Shivkar Bapuji Talpade

Who was Shivkar Bapuji Talpade?

Shivkar Bāpuji Talpade and Subbarāya Shāstry were two Indian scientists and Maharashtrian members of the Pathare Prabhu community who, some believe to have constructed and flown India's first unmanned airplane in the year 1895 to a height of 1500 feet. This event is supposed to have occurred 8 years before the Wright brothers' Wright Flyer, the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight. However, this claim is not supported factually since its technical basis has been deprecated by researches into the technological feasibility of such flights Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore,. Talpade's airplane was named Marutsakhā, a term used for the goddess Sarasvati in the Rigveda -- a portmanteau of Marut meaning stream of air and Sakha meaning friend. Talpade lived in Mumbai and was a scholar in Sanskrit literature and Vedas.

Talpade is supposed to have constructed Marutsakhā under the guidance of Pandit Subbarāya Shāstry. However, according to a study by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, it is not possible to construct such a flying machine.