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The sight of a well-suited gentleman wearing a hat on a bullock cart, pulled by oxen is not usual – rather it would shock many.
Strange but true, that is how Burmah Shell would carry cans of aviation gasoline to refuel the aircraft at an Indian airport in the nascent age of aviation. The vintage and location of this picture, though is not known, but it is estimated to be in the 1920s. It speaks of an era when aviation was just about to take off in the country.
Undoubtedly, with the modern hydrant fueling system, aircraft refueling has come a long way since the days, bullock carts would be used to haul aviation gasoline.
KLM operated their first intercontinental flight from Amsterdam to Batavia, (today’s Jakarta) on 1st October 1924. Enroute to Batavia, the aircraft made 21 stops including Ambala and Kolkata, where Brumah-shell fuelled the next leg of its journey. The Fokker VII finally reached its destination on 24th November 1924, forty eight days since it started the journey.
This flight marks the beginning of a new bond between KLM and Burmah-Shell and now Bharat Petroleum, which only grew stronger through the years. This bond is still in place, as we meet their Jet Fuel requirements at Indian Airports.
Most Indians remember JRD Tata as the man who headed the largest industrial group in India for five decades. What few know is that he also played an important role in the history of India’s civil aviation.
In 1932, JRD set up Tata Air Services, the first Indian commercial carrier to transport mail and passengers within India, which in 1946, became Air India. On October 15, 1932, a date that made aviation history, JRD famously piloted the first-ever flight – With single-engine De Havilland Puss Moth carrying 25 kg 4-anna airmail letters - from Karachi to Mumbai.
Burmah Shell had the honor of fueling JRD’s historic flight. Unexpectedly, the fuel was brought on a bullock cart and the aircraft was fueled with jerry cans. This unbelievable feat could only have been achieved when the commitment to a mission is greater than the obstacles that come in the way.
The first hydrant fueling system which was commissioned on the domestic passenger aircraft apron at Dumdum airport (Calcutta) was extended to international apron on 2nd Aug 1954, redefining the aircraft refueling in India The large capacity bulky bowser would be replaced with state of the art Hydrant Dispensing Units. The hydrant system had nine fueling points, the farthest being 2,000 feet away from the tankage that is buried under the tarmac. Amazingly, a passenger observing the fueling of an aircraft would only notice the hydrant (hose) and the valve pit inset into the tarmac.
Simply said, this infrastructure would not only remove the fuel quantity restriction but also improved the delivery rate of flow. Besides, the smaller dispensing units allowed more space and better maneuverability around the aircraft at the airport.
In 1958, Burmah-Shell Aviation Department opened their new Hydrant Service Station near Mumbai’s new Air Terminal Building at Santacruz Airport. Facilities at the Service Station were worthy of the modern airport building and installations .
Hydrant Fuelling is a much more efficient method than that based on mobile refuellers. Underground pipelines, leading from underground storage tanks in the service stations, connected with hydrant on the fuelling area where the Burmah-Shell crew could couple-up hoses, carried on special dispensing trollies, into both the hydrant and the waiting aircraft, and thus deliver the fuel under pressure, either ‘Over the Top’ or ‘Under the Wing’.
Burmah-Shell new service station was able to deliver fuel more quickly and in larger quantities that any other station in eastern part of the world.
A Harvard Trainer aircraft being refueled by Burmah-Shell Aviation Service at Juhu Airport in Mumbai in 1962 1. Before its nationalization, Indian Airforce used to uplift most of its Fuel requirement from Burmah-Shell.