Book Review

A flying man’s flying guide

A Centenary Sky: 100 years of Aviation in Sri Lanka
Author: Captain Elmo Jayawardena
Pages: 225 pp, hardback,
Published: The Civil
Aviation Authority

The first recorded successful take off and landing of a powered aircraft in Sri Lanka was by a Bleriot plane from the Colombo Race Course on 07 December 1912, a mere nine years after the first flight of the Wright Brothers. A few months before the 100th anniversary of this flight, the Civil Aviation Authority decided to publish a book covering 100 years of flight in Sri Lanka, Looking round for a suitable author, the Director General of CAA says that “the CAA was fortunate to find such a person who has had expertise in both aviation and authoring books”.

That person was Captain Elmo Jayawardena who has not only captained the largest of passenger aircraft but also won the Gratiaen Award in 2001 for his novel Sam's Story which Vijitha Yapa has described as one of their most successful publications. Elmo was given just 100 days to come up with the text of the book and what an amazing job has been done by him in such a limited time. The book covers in succinct style the whole gamut of aviation in Sri Lanka in a centenary sky, our centenary sky. Almost every page of the book is in glossy colour and the layout is beautifully designed and printed by M D Gunasena.

The book commences with a sort of prologue where a Sri Lankan Airlines A320 Airbus comes in through the dawn mist to land at Bandaranaike International Airport. The radio communications between the Pilot and Air Traffic Control are so graphically described that one can easily imagine being a bystander in the cockpit as the flight comes in to land.

Flying machine

The story of flight in Sri Lanka then begins in earnest. Going back 4000 years, was King Ravanna's Dandu Monara really a flying machine? If it was one, was it a glider or actually powered? The book even lists three possible types of motive power that could have been used. If they were really flying machines, why did the technology die out? The author open-endedly concludes the chapter by saying that “I have no clue to say how wrong I am or how right I could be”.

The first recorded take-off by a powered aircraft in Sri Lanka was by a German by the name of Franz Oster. On Christmas Day 1911 he took off from Colombo Race Course in an Austrian plane but crash landed. Two subsequent flights by Oster also ended in crash landings, and therefore these cannot be regarded as successful flights. The first successful take offs and landings were by the French pair, Georges Verminck amd Marc Pourpre. They had two Bleriot planes with 25 hp Anzani engines and they made several successful take offs and landings on 7th December 1912 and this can be taken as the inaugural date for powered flight in Sri Lanka.

Then followed a quiet period without any flights in our centenary sky until 1931 when a Puss Moth arrived in the country. In between, however, a chapter in the book describes how during World War I, Ceylonese in Malaya collected funds and sent it to the Secretary of State for Colonies in London for the purchase of a fighter plane. The plane that was purchased was a Farman FE2B and it was named “The Jaffna”. A few months later a flight of FE2Bs downed the Fokker airplane piloted by the leading German ace, Max Immelmann who had at least 17 British plane kills to his credit. Who knows, perhaps “The Jaffna” was in that flight of planes that downed Immelmann.

Active flying in our centenary sky started in the 1930s and was given added impetus when Ratmalana Airport became operational in 1935. In 1936, international air mail postal service commenced via India. General aviation also started in Ratmalana.

Merchant vessels

With the commencement of World War II, our centenary sky really started buzzing. The Royal Air Force brought in Hawker Hurricane and Fulmar fighters and Bristol Blenheim light bombers. The RAF had 14 bases in Sri Lanka and built airfields in places like Katunayake, Colombo Race Course, Puttalam, Trincomalee, Minneriya, Palali etc.

During Easter 1942, Japanese intruders came into our centenary sky. Admiral Nagumo, a veteran of Pearl Habour, with his fleet which included five aircraft carriers and over 300 combat aircraft including the latest Zero fighters approached Sri Lanka from the south-east. They were not a precursor to an invasion, their objective was to sink as many British vessels as possible, including merchant vessels. The Canadian pilot, Leonard Birchall who had arrived in Sri Lanka just two days previously, was sent out on a reconnaissance mission on 04 April 1942. He flew a twin engined Catalina flying boat from Koggala. It had a range of about 32 hours with extra fuel tanks. He spotted the Japanese fleet just as he was about to turn back and his Radio Officer was able to convey the information to Sri Lanka before the Catalina was shot down by the Japanese Zero fighters.

World record

The next day 127 Japanese aircraft led by Mitsuo Fuchida, who had previously led the attack on Pearl Harbour and Darwin, attacked Sri Lanka. Colombo was defended by 42 fighter planes and also Blenheim light bombers. In addition, the three British aircraft carriers based in Trincomalee had between them 45 Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers and 35 fighter aircraft. The latter were inferior to the Japanese Zero fighter planes. The Japanese succeeded in sinking the 11,000 ton aircraft carrier Hermes off Batticaloa which had a capacity of 20 aircraft and 307 lives were lost.

The book records that the seaplane base at Koggala is connected with a world record that still stands for the longest scheduled aircraft flights, time-wise. Qantas Imperial Airways had been flying commercial flights between UK and Australia, but with the fall of Singapore to the Japanese in 1942, refuelling there was no longer possible. An alternative route had to be found. Qantas decided to fly non-stop in strict radio silence from Koggala to the Swan River near Perth. The 5632 km journey with the twin engined non-pressurised Catalinas lumbering along at 98 knots, took between 27 to 32 hours depending on the headwinds. With additional fuel tanks, the take off weight increased to 35,000 pounds and this meant that if one of the two engines failed within 16 hours of take off, the plane would have to ditch in the sea. Fortunately between 1943 and 1945, a total of 271 flights were successfully completed. Because passengers would see two sunrises on this flight, it was known as the “Flight of the Double Sunrise”. Presumably on the flight from Perth to Koggala they would see two sunsets.

The book continues with the commencement of civil aviation in our centenary sky after the war; the construction of the civilian airport in Katunayake; the early days of Air Ceylon and their non-pressurised petrol engined war surplus Dakotas. The story is told of Paulis Appuhamy, a ‘Bus Mudalali’ from Attanagalle who had a konde and wore a sarong. He was so keen on flying that he wanted to get a Private Pilots Licence, so he studied English and sat for and passed the relevant theory examinations, took flying lessons and obtained his Licence in 1953, the first pilot to fly wearing a sarong.

The book comprehensively covers all that went on in our centenary sky. The rise of Air Ceylon to Air Lanka and then to Sri Lankan Airlines; a brief history of the Sri Lanka Air Force; the growth of cargo handling; air traffic control; the administrative organisations; model aeroplanes and the doyen of the sport, the late Ray Wijewardena; the rapidly growing sport of hot air ballooning; Mihin Lanka and its pioneering easy payments plan for passengers; Mattala International Airport which will open a new chapter in aviation in Sri Lanka; Para Motoring and Sea-planes. Just about everything that graced our centenary sky is included except for kites!

On page 189 the author includes under “A Toll to the Sky”, a humble and heartfelt tribute to those aircrew from both sides who perished during the recent thirty year conflict. He writes “The sky only gave them space to fly and watched in sadness how they died ...... The fact is they died in a conflict in which they had no part in the design. Each of them left someone in grief ...... The common thread was that they were all sons of Sri Lanka, born to the soil and now buried in the same sand ...... at the going down of the sun, we shall remember them”.

As a Government publication, this could well have been a boring litany of facts and figures in a boring administration report style. But what we have is something quite unexpected and different. It is written in a beautiful, refreshing and engaging style. The novelist in the author shines through. The book will become a record of the first hundred years of aviation in Sri Lanka. It is not a mere coffee table book, it is a ‘must read’ for anyone with even the faintest interest in aviation in Sri Lanka.

- Thiru Arumugam