Aircraft named Rustom

India’s new Drone (remote controlled unmanned aircraft) has been named Rustom, to honor the memory of the late Prof Rustom B. Damania. India’s only PhD in flight research holding a commercial pilot’s license, Damania led the team of engineers that developed the Light Canard Research Aircraft at the National Aeronautics Laboratory in Bangalore in the 1980s. A project of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for use by India’s defence services, Rustom, an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) will provide an alternative to the imported systems being used at present, as per the website of Flightglobal.com dated November 23, 2009.

Prof Rustom Dama-nia and (below) the Drone aircraft named after him

The medium altitude, long endurance Rustom, which will be used for surveillance, crashed during its first sortie at Hosur near Bangalore on November 16. But, as per the website, at least 10 more test flights of the Rustom design are expected before the system can be taken up for production. According to the Aeronautical Development Establishment, the crash was the result of "a misjudgment of altitude,” with a local media report saying the UAV hit coconut trees after its engine was intentionally switched off. Despite the mishap, according to the DRDO, "The flight proved the functioning of a number of systems such as aerodynamics, redundant flight control, engine and datalink, which go a long way towards the development of a complex UAV,” the website notes.

In an e-mail dated December 6, 2009 Maneck Bhujwala expressed pride in the fact that a UAV has been named after a Zarathushti. Bhujwala had lived with Damania and a couple of other Parsi students in a Parsi lady’s bungalow in Baroda for a short while in 1959-1960 when they were all students at the engineering college in that city. He recalls that Damania joined the Air Wing of the National Cadet Corps and rode a blue NSU motorcycle. Later Damania studied aeronautical engineering in the USA before returning to India and working at the National Aeronautics Laboratory and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited on research projects, where he established a distinguished record of achievements.

When Damania, who also worked as a consultant internationally, was diagnosed as suffering from a blood disease, Bhujwala, a registered blood marrow donor, telephoned him and offered to donate blood marrow. Dolly Malwa in South California offered to arrange for his stay there while undergoing treatment, but Damania sadly passed away in 2001 leaving behind wife Deenaz, daughters Tarana and Delara (see "Ahead of aviation,” In memoriam, Parsiana, August 2001). Bhujwala writes that he performed the prayers for Damania along with another priest, as requested by brother Ardeshir who is a professor at University of California Davis. Another brother, Minocheher, lives in India, Bhujwala mentions.