Kalinga Airlines was a private

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines for ...

based in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It was founded in 1947 by aviator and politician

Biju Patnaik Bijayananda Patnaik (5 March 1916 – 17 April 1997) was an Indian politician, aviator and businessman. As politician, he served twice as the Chief Minister of the State of Odisha. Early life His parents lived in Bellaguntha, Ganjam distri ...

, who was also the airline's chief pilot. The airline was nationalised and merged into

Indian Airlines Indian Airlines was a division of Air India Limited. It was based in Delhi and focused primarily on domestic routes, along with several international services to neighbouring countries in Asia. It was a division of Air India Limited after m ...

in 1953. It restarted operations as a non-scheduled charter operator in 1957 and flew passengers and cargo until 1972.

History

In 1947, Biju Patnaik, who used to be a

Royal Indian Air Force The Royal Indian Air Force (RIAF) was the aerial force of British India and later the Dominion of India. Along with the Indian Army, and Royal Indian Navy, it was one of the Armed Forces of British Indian Empire. The Indian Air Force was offi ...

World War II

Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Griff ...

and

DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper version ...

pilot, carried soldiers into

Kashmir Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...

, landing the first platoon of troops in

Srinagar Srinagar (English: , ) is the largest city and the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It lies in the Kashmir Valley on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus, and Dal and Anchar lakes. The city is known for its natu ...

. Kalinga Airlines' DC-3s were also used to drop supplies at North Eastern India. In 1953, the airline, along with other seven independent domestic airlines including Deccan Airways, Airways India, Bharat Airways,

Himalayan Aviation Himalayan Aviation ( hi, हिमालयन एविएशन) was an airline based in India that operated in the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent until its nationalization and merger into Indian Airlines in 1953. Incidents * On ...

Indian National Airways Indian National Airways Ltd was an airline based in Delhi, India.Page 15 The founder of the airline was R. E. Grant Govan, a Delhi based British industrialist who also co-founded the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the Cricket Club o ...

Air India Air India is the flag carrier airline of India, headquartered at New Delhi. It is owned by Talace Private Limited, a Special-Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of Tata Sons, after Air India Limited's former owner, the Government of India, completed the sa ...

and

Air Services of India Air Services of India was a private airline based at Juhu Aerodrome in Mumbai, in India. The airline was merged into the Indian Airlines Corporation in 1953. History Of Aeroplane Service The airline was formed in 1936 and initially served routes ...

was nationalised and merged into the Indian Airlines Corporation. Kalinga Airways restarted operations in December 1957 by the merger of five airlines, Assam Airways, Indamer Airways, Jamair, Kalinga and Darbhanga Aviations with a fleet of 15 DC-3s. Since May 1960, Kalinga specialised in supply dropping operations in the north-east regions of the country. Non-scheduled operations from Bombay to Dubai were also operated but were suspended in October 1962 to focus on supply dropping. The air-drop operations were taken over by the Indian Air Force in June 1967 and the airline reverted to passenger and cargo charters until February 1972.

Incidents and accidents

* On 31 December 1951, the DC-3 carry three crew members struck trees on climb-out in limited visibility conditions. * On September 15, 1952, a Kalinga Airlines

Douglas Dakota The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota ( RAF, RAAF, RCAF, RNZAF, and SAAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remained in ...

cargo flight crashed in

Wadi Halfa Wādī Ḥalfā ( ar, وادي حلفا) is a city in the Northern state of Sudan on the shores of Lake Nubia near the border with Egypt. It is the terminus of a rail line from Khartoum and the point where goods are transferred from rail to ferr ...

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

killing three crew members aboard. * On 10 April 1952, Douglas C-47A-25-DK carrying four crew members lost control when carrying out an emergency landing following an engine failure. * On August 30, 1955, a Kalinga Airlines

lifted off prematurely in Simra,

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

in order to avoid hitting someone crossing the runway. Two of the three crew members aboard were killed.Did it come with a bang then? Nepal's early aviation history.
* On 17 OCT 1965 Douglas C-47A-75-DL carry 8 people including 5 passengers crashed while dropping supplies in Mohanbari.

References

External links

{{Airlines of India Defunct airlines of India Airlines established in 1946 Airlines disestablished in 1953 Memorials to Biju Patnaik Companies based in Kolkata Indian companies disestablished in 1953 Indian companies established in 1946