J.R.D. Tata and Science

I've been re-reading JRD Tata's Keynote: Excerpts from his speeches and chairman's statements to shareholders. It's a collection of speeches JRD gave on various occasions that trace his thoughts on India, business and future. In a speech given on November 2, 1943, he spoke to the Bombay Rotary Club marking a decade of airmail service in India. He pioneered airmail service in India, and in fact piloted the first airmail service from Karachi to Bombay in 1932 carring sacks of mails in a tiny Puss Moth airplane (top speed 200 km/hr, woot!). What impressed me was his keen interest in science and his terrific application of science to problems at hand, amply demostrated by this quote:

"The essence of air transport is speed, and speed is unfortunately one of the most expensive commodities in the world, principally because of the disproportionate amount of the power required to achieve high speed and to lift loads thousands of feet into the air. This is strikingly illustrated by the fact that while an average cargo ship, freight train and transport aeroplane are each equipped with engines totalling about 2,500 H.P., the ship can carry a load of about 7,000 tons, the train 800 tons and the plane only two and a half tons."

If we want to take that thought one step further, say, into space, it may prove instructive.
I have a certain satellite in mind. Recall Sputnik. This is the fiftieith year after Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, was launched into space by russians. Sputnik, as it happens, weighed 83.6 kilograms; that, I suppose, is a natural extension to JRD's thought on the business of lifting and moving things above the planet's surface.

One other quote I want to share (more here):

"I wish, I were big enough, like Einstein, to do what he did on one occasion. A hundred-dollar-a-plate dinner was organised for him to speak, and leaders of America in all fields, particularly in the field of science, were invited to hear the great man. When his turn came, he rose and said:'I've nothing to say,' and sat down. You can imagine the consternation, quite apart from the wasted cost of the dinner! Realising the frightful effect his remarks had on the audience, Einstein got up again and said: 'When I've something to say, I'll let you know.' (Address to the Lions Club of Jamshedpur, August 22, 1963.)"