Background
Talpade was born in the Chira Bazaar locality of Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra.
Talpade was born in the Chira Bazaar locality of Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra.
He completed his school education in Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy School of Artist During his time there he came to know about ancient Indian aeronautics through his teacher Chiranjilal Verma, who led Talpade to read Swami Dayanand Saraswati"s works related to ancient aeronautics, such as ‘Rigvedādic Bhāshya Bhumikā’ and ‘Rigved and Yajurveda Bhāshya’.
Talpade lived in Bombay and was a scholar of Sanskrit literature and the Vedas. He belonged to the Pathare Prabhu community who were the early settlers of the Bombay city. Inspired by these texts he decided to construct the Vedic Vimāna described in the Vedas, and started learning Vedic Sanskrit language.
Talpade"s study included the experiment of machine gun inventor Hiram Maxim who made a captive steam-driven aircraft.
According to Mr. Velkar, Mr. Talpade studied these flights, which inspired him to make, an aircraft and fly.
Talpade"s airplane was named, derived from the Sanskrit Marut ("air" or "stream") and sakhā ("friend") which together mean "Friend of wind". As suggested by Doctorate. K. Kanjilal"s 1985 Vimana in Ancient India: Aeroplanes Or Flying Machines in Ancient India, as well as contemporary reports in the Marāthi-language newspaper Kesari, is supposed to have been inspired from Vimāna, ancient flying-machines in Hindu mythology.
One of Talpade"s students, Pint
South. Doctorate. Satawlekar, wrote that sustained flight for a few minutes. According to K.R.N. Swamy "a curious scholarly audience headed by a famous Indian judge and a nationalist, Mahadeva Govinda Ranade and H H Sayaji Rao Gaekwad, respectively, had the good fortune to see the unmanned aircraft named as ‘Marutsakthi’ take off, fly to a height of 1500 feet and then fall down to earth". The presence of Mahadev Govind Ranade and Sayajirao Gaekwad III during the flight is also cited in "Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute".
A former Indian defense officer stated in 2004 that failed to operate to its full design limits due to technical reasons.
The technical basis of the Vedic Ion Design which was supposedly used by Talpade has been debunked by research into the technological feasibility of such flights. After the experiment, apparently was stored at Talpade"s house until well after his death.
Velakara quotes one of Talpade"s nieces, Roshan Talpade, as saying the family used to sit in the aircraft"s frame and imagine they were flying. A model reconstruction of was exhibited at an exhibition on aviation at Vile Parle, and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has preserved documents relating to the experiment.
A film based on life of Talpade, Hawaizaada, starring Ayushmann Khurrana, was released on 30 January 2015.
The film was earlier titled Bambai Fairytale.