Mrs N C Sen

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A brief biography

Manju V, One Dec over a century ago, a woman became first Indian to fly in country, December 23, 2018: The Times of India

The invite and the postcard found in a book titled ‘India by Mortimer Menpes’
From: Manju V, One Dec over a century ago, a woman became first Indian to fly in country, December 23, 2018: The Times of India


NC Sen Also Held Controls During Flight, Making Her First Indian To Pilot An Aircraft

This paper has reported that India has the highest percentage of women airline pilots in the world. What is not known is that the first Indian to ever fly as a passenger in India was a woman. She also held the aircraft controls briefly during the course of the historic flight, technically making her the first Indian to pilot an aircraft in Indian skies.

A TOI report dated December 22, 1910 says that the men of Calcutta’s famous Tollygunge Club were playing golf one evening that month when Pierre de Caters, a Belgian baron, took off on a biplane from its expansive grounds for a practice flight with one Mrs N C Sen seated in tandem behind his pilot’s seat.

Newspaper reports referred to Mrs N C Sen as the sister-in-law of the then Maharani of Cooch Behar. “She was Mrinalini Devi, wife of Nirmal Chandra Sen, son of Keshab Chandra Sen, the Bengali philosopher and social reformer,” said a person familiar with old Calcutta families. “She was an adventurous woman. She was also a renowned beauty. She was first married to the Raja of Paikpara. After he died she married Sen,” the person said.

Tolly itself seemed unaware of this historic flight until Mumbai-based aviation enthusiast Debasish Chakraverty started making inquiries last year. He had stumbled upon the information in the online archives of the UK-based Flight Magazine, which was established in 1909. The magazine report had photographs of Mrs N C Sen, de Caters and fellow Belgian pilot Jules Tyck, who’d brought a Bleriot XI monoplane and a Farman biplane to India in 1910 to operate the first manned and powered flights to ever to take off from Indian soil.

“From Europe, the aircraft docked in Mumbai port. But the Belgian pilots were denied permission to fly in Mumbai and so they left for Kolkata,” said Chakraverty. Meanwhile, Dennis Read, an UK-based aviation enthusiast with whom Chakraverty had been corresponding, had found reports carried in three French newspapers. Read first learnt about the flight from a vintage invitation – that he had bought on ebay – to the ‘Aviation Meeting on December 28, 1910’ at the Tolly. TOI unearthed more information from its 180-year old archives library.

News reports from the three French newspapers, one British magazine, and TOI archives all spoke about Mrs N C Sen as the “first Indian lady” to ever board an aircraft that took off from India soil. Who then was the first Indian man? This journalist scanned the TOI archives for aviation reports published between 1903 and 1920 for the first Indian man to have flown an aircraft in India, prior to Mrs Sen’s flight but couldn’t find any.

Since the exact date of Mrs Sen’s flight doesn’t appear to have been reported anywhere, this journalist looked through all published material for the most proximate date. The TOI report, headlined “First Ladies to Fly”, was published on December 22, 1910, so she would flown before that. Tolly was to have an exhibition flight on December 28 but days before the event, the pilots carried out practice flights and Mrs Sen flew on one of them. The TOI report said the flight was operated on a Wednesday, which would be December

14. UK’s Flight Magazine, though, in a report carried on December 24, 1910, said Mrs Sen flew the Monday before, which would have made it December 19. So the best guess is that she flew sometime around December 14-19 .

There are no records of any Indian man to have flown an aircraft in India before December 19,1910. A report in Asiatic Review, a journal printed by the East India Association, read: “The first Indian passenger to venture into the air seems to have been the Kunwar Sahib of Benares, who was taken for a flight around the polo ground at Allahabad by M. Henri Pequet on December 22, 1910.”

It would then appear that Mrs N C Sen wasn’t just the first Indian woman but the first Indian to ever fly as a passenger in India. French newspaper Le Figaro also reported that the Baron handed over the flight controls to Mrs Sen for a short while.

Little is known about this woman and the historic flight that heralded the beginning of Indian aviation history, though it was operated merely seven years after the Wright brothers flew the first powered flight in human history at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, US. Had it not been for Chakraverty and Dennis Read, this bit of information would have been lost in the annals of history. “She is from an influential family and so we will get details,” said Anil Mukerji, CEO of Tollygunge Club, which plans to erect a plaque commemorating the first-ever flight to take off in India.


MRS SEN IDENTIFIED

2 French paper reports: Mrs N Sen was sister-in-law of Maharani of Cooch Behar

Aviation enthusiast Debasish Chakraverty dug deep to find out her identity:

In 1910, Maharaja was Nripendra Narayan. Maharaja Nripendra Narayan was married to Suniti Devi, daughter of Keshab Chandra Sen, Bengali philosopher and social reformer. By all accounts, the Maharaja didn’t have a sister. So the sister-in-law is likely to be the wife of one of brothers of the Maharani. Keshab Chandra Sen had five sons; two married to Indians. Nirmal Chandra Sen—married to Mrinalini Devi Luddhi; Saral Chandra Sen—married to Nirmala “Nellie” Sen...I believe, Mrs N C Sen is Nirmala “Nellie” Sen

TOI made inquiries with people familiar with old Kolkata families

Mrinalini was the one who first flew on an aircraft. She was a very adventurous woman. She was a renowned beauty. She was married to the Rajah of Pikerpara, only to get widowed and then be betrothed to Nirmal Chandra Sen in a marriage that scandalized the Brahmo Samaj,” said one

Aircraft she flew: Back then, an aircraft meant a wood and fabric contraption held together by metal ribs and spars. Farman III biplane, the one she flew, had two seats in tandem. Safety belts or helmets were uncommon. The speed would be about 40mph or 65kph. The seats were exposed to the wind

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