THE ORIGIN
The Mid-1970s Pioneering Journey
In 1975, a young Indian Army Captain posted at the College of Military Engineering in Pune read an article about hang gliding in a copy of Popular Mechanics. He wrote to his cousin in USA for his plans which cost five dollars.
The materials specified — aircraft-grade alloy tubing, imported Dacron sailcloth — were unavailable in India. So he sourced aluminium pipes from a market in Pune and used fertilizer bag fabric strong enough to hold fifty kilograms on a hook without tearing. He built the glider in an abandoned workshop shed over three to four months. He signed an indemnity bond . When experienced paratroopers and glider pilots refused to test it, he ran with it himself across a football field until he felt it try to lift him.
Then he took it to the Dighi Hills north of Pune. He had no flying background. Not one bit.
He taught himself to fly in stages — five feet, ten feet, thirty feet, a hundred feet, and finally the top of a 500-foot hill. He floated down for two minutes and landed in a quiet field next to a farmer who thought he was a Martian. He suffered minor injuries while learning to fly by himself. His Sanawar School Motto... NEVER GIVE IN, has always sustained his enthusiasm to succeed throughout his life.
That man is Lt Col Vivek Mundkur. He is 81 years old. He is planning to fly solo again in November 2026.
Why This Story Matters
Vivek did not discover hang gliding. The world already knew about it. What he did was bring it to India, entirely on his own, initially without institutional support, without a teacher, and without certainty about whether his handmade glider would hold him in the air.
He went on to build India's first hang gliding school at the CME, train over a hundred student volunteers, and construct twenty-five training gliders by hand assisted by his students. He was sent to England by the Indian Army to qualify as an instructor — but soon he found it difficult to convince people about the safety requirements .He carried on regardless after retiring from the Army.More than five decades later, he is still flying.