THE AIRCRAFT THE LEGEND

The flag of free India was first unfurled neither on land nor at sea, but quite significantly, aboard an Air India aircraft.


On 3 August 1947, a special Air India flight carried Vijayalakshmi Pandit, appointed independent India’s first Ambassador to the USSR, to Moscow. The aircraft flew bearing the newly adopted tricolour, marking the first time the flag of independent India was unfurled.
Air India C-47 Skytrain variant(DC-3 Dakota)
Registration VT-CGE
Built: 1943 by Douglas Aircraft Corporation in Oklahoma, USA (c/n 42-93234)
Flew for the USAAF and later the British RAF under serial number FL575.
Acquired in India in 1947 and registered as VT-CGE under Tata Air Services (Air India) before partition.
Briefly re-registered as VT-CPK with Orient Airways and later moved to Pakistan as AP-AAK when Orient Airways relocated from Calcutta to Karachi.
It subsequently flew for SABENA in Belgium as OO-CBY (1953)
Operated in Libya (1959) and later acquired by Linair (1962) and Belgian International Air Services (1965)
Imported back to the United States (N6894, 1972).
Registered in Canada as C-GADY (East Executive Import Ltd) in 1973, subsequently serving with Air Gava (1975) and Les Services Aériens Fortair Ltée.
Finally decommissioned in February 1982 with its US registration N2668N cancelled

Orient Airways was registered in Calcutta on 23 October 1946 by the Ispahani, Adamjee, and Arag industrial groups at the encouragement of Muhammad Ali Jinnah to establish a Muslim-owned commercial airline in India. It began commercial operations on 4 June 1947, primarily operating routes out of Calcutta to Akyab and Rangoon.


Following Partition in August 1947, the airline immediately shifted operational focus to the newly created state of Pakistan. It flew airlifts between Delhi and Karachi to transport refugees and government personnel and established the vital air bridge linking West Pakistan (Karachi) and East Pakistan (Dhaka).


While flight operations were centered in Karachi from late 1947, the head office officially completed its transfer from Calcutta to Karachi Airport in 1949. In March 1955, Orient Airways was merged with the state-owned air carrier project to form Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), serving as the foundational fleet and infrastructure for Pakistan's national carrier.

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