Differently-abled school dropout Saji Thomas was in the threshold of his teenage when he was bitten by the bug to build an airplane after a pesticide fighter agriculture helicopter came to his village in Thattakuzha near Thodupuzha, about 58 km from Kochi. This inspired Saji, who can’t hear or speak, to perhaps become the first differently-abled person to build a plane in the world.
Absence of a special school in the vicinity forced his parents to stop sending him to one at a far off place at Thalayolaparambu in the neighbouring Kottayam district. Saji spent most of his time watching curiously the agriculture plane fly spraying insecticides on plantations when he was 14 years old.
His passion to learn more about the plane grew and he wasted no time to acquaint with the pilots. He even managed to get on board one of the helicopters. Before the pilots left he collected their address in Mumbai. The constant urge to learn about the plane kept playing in his mind for some months. Finally, Saji set out to Mumbai in search of them.
The pilots could do very little to help him as their knowledge was limited, as was Saji’s who had studied only up to Class VII. But he was not one to lose hope. Saji returned home by the next available train to embark on a mission to gather knowledge by himself and design a plane with renewed vigour and passion.
He worked hard to build a helicopter. He made a frame for it but faced a funds crunch. He tried everything he could to mobilise funds. Then he left the mission midway and instead tried building a micro aircraft. By 2000, when he was about 30 years of age, his wish of building an aircraft since he was 14, finally saw light of day when he completed an aircraft and displayed it at an exhibition organised by Gandhiji Study Centre at Thodupuzha in Idukki district. Former President APJ Abdul Kalam who visited the exhibition was impressed by the plane though Saji’s effort to meet Dr Kalam went in vain.
The total cost incurred on building the single-seater aircraft weighing 200 kg was Rs 1.75 lakh. The power of the plane was 26.5 HP (horsepower) with 6000 RPM (revolutions per minute). The plane was later bought by a private engineering college in Kottayam.
Saji set out to build another aircraft, which was completed by 2013 and it took to the skies in April, 2014 under the guidance of Retired Indian Air Force official SKJ Nair at Ambasamudram in Tamil Nadu. Saji’s wife Mariya told Express that they approached Nair for help having read about his passion for flying in a Malayalam newspaper. Saji navigated the plane co-piloted by Nair. Saji is now trying his luck at getting a flying licence from Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). He is employed at a private concern in Kochi.
A lot of students visit his house as part of study tours. But they leave dejected as they don’t get an opportunity to see the plane which is stationed at Nair’s private airstrip in Ambasamudram.
Saji regrets not being able to substantiate his claim of flying the plane. “I flew the plane to a certain height of about 20 feet a few days ago. I can’t lift it beyond a certain level as we don’t have permission from DGCA for the aircraft to be airborne,” says Nair. Mariya says the family is struggling for funds to procure the DGCA licence, which is pending for want of a few technical protocols too.
The family had spent about seven years and invested about Rs 10 lakh to build the plane by selling some personal belongings and doing odd jobs. Saji worked on the information collected from the internet and other books to fabricate the plane weighing about 265 kg.
About the aircraft developed by Saji, Nair says, “It has a 65 BHP German Hirth engine similar to X-Air planes developed by Raj Hamsa Ultralight of Bangalore. The particular model X-Air is popular among small users in US and France.” Saji had made slight variations to the engineering design and seat position.
Nair says he had gone by the claims made by Saji although he had nothing concrete to back his claims. He feels Saji’s attempt is encouraging and the government should support him if it is a genuine case.
jayasankar@newindianexpress.com