- By Reshmi Suresh

“So why did you choose Aero?”

This seemed to be the most common question in the Department Freshie-Senior interaction. Because we got Aero. People said over and over again. So I’m going to be classmates with 60 other people who have no interest in the field. So much for studying with the best brains in the country, in a research oriented campus. The only comfort was that at least the number of people who said “Because I want to be an astronaut” was lesser than the number of people who were actually interested in the field.

I would be lying if I said that since I was 5 I dreamed about being an Aerospace engineer. To be honest I knew the difference between Aerospace and Astrophysics at a much later age. But from whatever I read and heard about it, I had decent enough interest in the subject. I always wanted to be a computer engineer but my JEE rank clearly didn’t think I should. So I had an open mind about the department when I came to IIT Madras.

If you aren’t planning to jump streams the first chance you get, seniors will make you want to, with their countless no-one-in-aero-gets-placed horror stories. That’s why after first semester, six people applied for branch change and fled. The rest of the ‘unfortunate’ souls would curse their CGPA’s for not being high enough to get a branch change.

Then I met Prof. M Ramakrishna, in my second year. And that’s when I fell in love with the department and the field. I can confidently say that he is the best professor I have met in my life (I don’t know if his reminding me of Einstein had anything to do with it though). After two semesters of Physics/Chemistry/Math and other common courses, which most students slept through, it was a refreshing change when the department courses began. With Prof. Sriram and Prof Bhaskar, one cannot ask for better professors. I don’t care if I don’t get paid as much as the Mech people, I don’t mind working a little hard, because I’m able to say that I’m actually learning something, and that I am interested in what I am learning. 

HIGH SPIRITS- A poem

- By Seri Nirath Sanjana

I watch the jets roll past

Each waiting for its turn 

To curve against the blue

To move, to rise and soar high and high

How beautiful they are in their utility 

I still think it's magic though

I know physics , the thrust , the lift

All that's in my mind , but my heart knows

How magically , it's a miracle that leaps away

From the earth that vibrate,

Gliding above the clouds

And I can feel it through my bones

A trembling of anticipation 

Through all earth s history the world has dreamed of this

A gift that angels made our own

But we now live the dream where the skies are ours. :)

AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. K.A DAMODARAN , HOD of Dept of Aerospace Engineering, IIT Madras, 1984-1988

-By Manu N M

From a telephonic interview with Dr. K A Damodaran, who was one among the pioneers of Ramjets and Scramjets in India and the HoD of Department of Aerospace Engineering, IIT Madras from 1984 to 1988.

                After basic schooling from Trichur and Chennai, Dr. K A Damodaran did BSc in Physics in 1952 at Victoria College, Palakkad followed by an engineering degree in Electrical and Electronics from BITS Pilani in 1955. He was one amongst Dr. Satish Dhawan’s first batch students at Indian Institute of Science and later did his Masters degree under Dr. Dhawan himself. After his degree at IISc, he worked on Aircraft Engine Integration at HAL, which involved the designing of HF-24 Maruth and various other engine integration projects. After the prototype design, he did another Masters in Air breathing Propulsion at Cranfield Institute of Technology during 1961-62 which he finished within 1 year due to the special consideration received because of his work at IISc. He then worked in Madras Institute of Technology (MIT) as a Design Engineer and designed many experimental facilities like induction tunnel, and a few high speed and low speed wind tunnels etc. During his period over there, he even taught many courses at MIT in propulsion and design.

                He joined IIT Madras in 1968 November when the Aerospace Engineering Department was about to be established. He can be considered as one of the pioneers in the Ramjet engine technology in India and he was one of the leaders in the Ramjet project when it was sponsored by DRDO in 1971. During his first few years at IITM, he designed a few high speed and low speed wind tunnels. During 1970 – 71, he started his work on scramjet engines and his thesis was submitted in 1974. After becoming a professor at IITM in November 1974, he lead various projects like reverse flow combustion chamber project, hypersonic cruise missile project, solid fuel ramjet project, variable geometry engine (which operates in three different modes) project and many others. As an offshoot to the variable geometry engine project, his idea of introduction of petal nozzle (which is used to induce vortex mixing) into an injector helped to reduce the mixing length to a considerable extent (from 20 D to 3.5 D), which resulted in reducing the length of the entire combustion chamber. This was a remarkable breakthrough in the design of scramjet combustor and this concept was proven as a DRDO project and later was tested in scaled up combustor at NAL, Bangalore.

                Dr. Damodaran was the Head of Aerospace Engineering department from 1984 – 88 and he has published over 50 research papers in his career. Later he was a scientific consultant in VSSC during 1993 – 2000 during which he did extensive work on the variable geometry engine and made a mathematical model for this. 

When and how did you get the inspiration for taking aerospace engineering as your career?

                I never had planned all these. When I finished my study at Pilani, there were only two seats available in Indian Institute of Science for an Mtech graduate in electrical engineering, one was Electrical Power and the second one was Aeronautics. After my Btech in Electrical and Electronics, I had found out that electrical engineering was not the field where I wanted to work. So I chose Aeronautics. But later I learned propulsion because of requirement in my work. It’s difficult for an aircraft engine integration man if he doesn’t have a sound knowledge in engine performance. Also I went to Cranfield for doing my Ramjet work. My professor in Cranfield, Dr. Lefbre who was considered as the best man in combustion chamber design in those times, asked me whether I can continue this work for him. That’s how I entered into the field of combustion. So what I am telling you is that, nothing about my career was planned by me. I believe that some unknown hand made me do all these.

What do you think is the greatest achievement of your career? 

                I used to tell my students that I like to be known as an “Acharya” rather than a Professor. Because professor is one who professes knowledge, but an acharya is one who practices what he teaches. So ultimately, now I’m here in the position of a “Vedacharya”. I had to design many destructive weapons throughout my career. So I tell my students that I’m doing this as a opaciation for all those sins.

                When the interviewer commented, “It can also be viewed as your contributions to national safety” his reply was “If I have used my mind for something which is used for destroying mankind, shouldn’t I also have to use my mind for doing something good for the society? ”

                The idea of greatest achievement depends on the time period of one’s life. Also, it’s not me who has to tell about this. If you ask me now, what I am doing right now in my life, which is researching on Vedas, is the greatest achievement of my life. For the aeronautical society, I would say that my work in reverse flow combustion will be my greatest achievement.

Few words to the students.

                If you ask Prof. Sujith, he will say, “What you proved is that you don’t have to be called a particular engineer. You can study in any engineering branch and work in any other branch.“ After you reach a particular level, you must be able to view knowledge in a unitary way. What I want to tell you is that, don’t lose the opportunity by worrying too much about the subject. If it turns out that you don’t like the content, shift to something else. My life proves that it’s possible at any instant of time. If you have the will, you can always succeed.

                My grandson used to tell me to write an autobiography. So what I told him was, I will tell my story, but somebody else has to write it. It is not worth writing for me and also, for one who is at 87, it’s a painful thing to write and it only increases the ego. I have got many other better things to write about.

                Dr. Damodaran now spends his time with his family in Palakkad. For the last five years, he is in the process of authoring a four-fold commentary on Rig-Veda for which he had started collecting data since 1987. The book is finished and is on its way to the readers. Along with this, he is mentoring many students, professors, engineers to help them succeed in their life.

May God bless him with a long and healthy life.

NATIONAL PROPULSION CONFERENCE 2013

- By Seri Nirath Sanjana

The first meet of its kind for the brightest mind of the country who work in field of propulsion, The National Profulsion Conference (NPC) was held from 21st to 23rd February, 2013 at IIT Madras. NPC-2013 was organized by IIT Madras under the auspices of the Aeronautics Research & Development Board (AR&DB)—Propulsion Panel.

The conference commenced with the inaugural ceremony on 21st February  The invocation song “Vande matram” was rendered splendidly by our very own choir group. The Director of IIT Madras, Prof Bhaskar Ramamurthi delivered the presidential address followed by the words of the chief guest for the evening, Dr. V K Saraswat,  director General, DRDO and technical advisor to the Defense minister of India. Dr. Saraswat enlightened the audience about the modern difficulties in the field and expectations by the politicians from the scientist community. The director was impressed by the overwhelming number of people in the auditorium for the inauguration, not to forget his special praise for the singers of “Vande Matram”.

After a short tea break, a plenary session was organized with 2 speakers. The first was Mr. S. Ramakrishnan, Director, VSSC who with his speech, threw light on the current developments in space propulsion technologies. The second speaker was Dr. C. P. Ramanarayanan, Director, GTRE who took the listeners to a different dimension of underwater propulsion systems. This was followed by a presentation by Aeronautics Research & Development Board (AR&DB) and a veteran’s round table. The dinner brought an end to the day’s activities and also served as a platform for students to interact with the professionals from different sectors.

About 123 papers covering areas  related to engine technologies of aerospace propulsion and power: novel thermodynamic cycle analysis including the Second Law, chemical thermodynamics and kinetics of combustion, fuel injection, atomization and sprays, propellants, combustor design and development, intake and nozzle studies, turbomachinery, thrust vector control, heat transfer and thermal management, aerospace engine materials, thermo-structural/vibration analyses, ground and flight testing, advanced diagnostics and instrumentation, computational simulations and modelling, etc. were put up in a total of 28 sessions running for 2 days.

There were also invited talks by Prof Babu Viswanathan of IIT Madras on “Design of Scramjet combustor through CFD” and by Mr.Krishnaswami Sundar, Scientist at GE Aviation on the topic “Aviation Gas Turbine: Powering the next generation”.  One of the highlights of the second day was the banquet dinner at GRT Grand, Chennai. The students volunteering for the event had an unforgettable experience there! A vote of thanks was given to the 3 PhD scholars who made the event a success. Some improvements and changes were suggested by the delegates including the demand for a trip to the facilities on campus to let people know about the researches going on in the field at the institution. Special praise was given for the beautiful, clean and eco-friendly campus of IIT Madras.

After 3 days full of science and technology all around in air, the NPC 2013 finally came to an end on 23rd February with closing speech and vote of thanks by the two most important organizers without whom the event would have been impossible: Prof. Job Kurian and Prof S. R. Chakravarthy. The event was a grand success : it succeeded in attracting the professionals who shared the developments in their fields with each other, it succeeded in attracting the young students towards the field of propulsion and made them aware of the current developments and challenges in the field , and provided a platform of interaction between professionals and students.

The NPC is currently scheduled to happen bi-annually with a likely invitation to the foreign delegates from the next conference onwards. There is no doubt that all the people related to the challenging field of propulsion will be looking forward to the next NPC.

Aero India 2013, Bangalore- A TRIP TO REMEMBER!

- By Athira Rajiv

So, one fine day a mail pops in by Sandeep (who himself din’t come with us sadly) asking us to plan a trip for the one of its kind Air show in India, the Aero India fest 2013 at Bangalore. Some, initial responses and then it seemed a dream far from reality. But then, an awesome batch we are, we did it, kudos to the enthu max Arjun and Harish!! 

 

So after lots of convincing and cribbing, finally 13 people are ready… High on adrenaline at 2 am in night, all are ready to jump in the mini bus. The bus starts heading to the destination, Bangalore.. And no one is in mood to sleep… The movie “Munnabhai MBBS” is put up and all laugh like anything.. And then the night (read early morning) takes its toll and all fall asleep (except the people who got pained by the driver at every toll booth: Gosh! How many tolls they have!! ). 

Someone wakes up and sees we are heading on a wonderful road with some hills that can be seen around. And then everyone wakes up to the breathtaking beauty of the morning sun hidden behind those hills. So we stop at some place to get fresh and some fresh air. Next up is the dosa’s and idli’s from Tiffs (dunno whose idea it was to get them packed! But thanks! ). Songs are put up, thanx to the collection by Kauts (no 1 thanked him till now I guess), and after sometime the singer within us comes into play. All sing their lungs out, and the dance in the bus! That was chaotic.. 

Meanwhile, we reach the outskirts of the city and the Bangalore veteran Harish is busy finding out ways to reach the Yelahanka air base avoiding peak traffic, after picking up 2 more people from Bangalore. So, we park our bus somewhere and are waiting for our PJ guru, name not needed I guess :P. And, lo a traffic police guy comes. It was his 1^st pick of the day I guess.. 50 bucks and he is settled. :P. If not for the bribing system, we would have been stuck there for God knows how long! 

So after all this we finally reach the place.. Stuck in crawling traffic, we go crazy seeing aircrafts maneuvering from the bus itself. And how long could we control, we figure out that getting down from the bus and walking is faster than the bus crawling. We managed to get tickets pretty soon thanks to PP and Harish for standing in the queue for all.. And then we head to the display area. 

Idiots as we were, we first went to the most useless halls of all which only had stalls of some arbit companies putting fundaes on what they do. Though our PC’s din’t miss a chance to put in their email ID’s at each of the counters for interns and placement! Anyway, after wasting lots of time in this useless hall, we realize there are way more awesome things to see. So, we take lunch (it was 2 already and all were starved) and before we could go to see any other ground display halls, the most awaited thing had begun!! The AIR SHOW! 

That was a breathtaking experience! A Russian aerobatics team with their 4 Sukhoi’s leaving flares in the sky, beating head on collision with supreme accuracy and wonderful maneuvers. And then another Sukhoi goes so high up that it became invisible. And then the amazing synchronized maneuvers of 4 planes from the Redbull team (the pilot of one of which was apparently a 60 year old lady!) That was one helluva sight!! 

So, there we are standing in the scorching sun, watching the skies, catching each and every thrilling action. And IITians as were are, our "nerd"ness could just not be avoided. There was some discussion on the type of air intake for the engines, on the location of horizontal stabilizer, the vortices formed in the smoke trail,  till someone realized it was weird and people were turning and looking at us!. After about 2 hours of sheer awesomeness, the air show came to an end. We start running to the display halls to get a glimpse of everything before the halls close..and yeah we actually ran! Stalls by all the aerospace companies in the world! You name it, and they are there!

But this was not the end, we take our bus (there was epic confusion created for the driver by telling him not less than 3 gate numbers to come pick us up :D) and head to the Bangalore host Harish’s home… What a hospitality to so many people. Respect man! Needless to say, home food is what we all pine for, so we get this awesome dinner have some chit chat with his wonderful parents and then it’s time to leave the wonderful city.

So, we are in the bus, on our way back to Chennai, its 11pm, all are tired, sleep deprived, legs paining badly, and someone gives a crazy idea of watching a movie - ‘Arrow’ ! No one denies to it. But anyway no one saw it more than first 30 minutes may be :P (BTW it’s a wonderful movie on how technology and politics are interrelated, a MUST watch). And, then I don’t remember anything. All I remember is I wake up to find the bus is already in insti. The end had come..

So, anyway it was an awesome trip, how could it not be? Wherever 15 people of the batch get together, it has to be awesome! The experience was once in a lifetime (at least for now) for many of us. Looking forward to more such legen…wait for it…dary trips full of awesomeness…
Love you guys.. we rock!!