In 1930, Indian aviation quietly witnessed a bold pioneer - Purushottam Meghji Kabali, widely recognized as the first Indian-origin pilot to earn a flying permit . That year, he acquired a Spartan VT-AAT aircraft in England, christening it “Feather of the Dawn,” a nod to Sarojini Naidu’s poetic collection, who presided over a pre-flight religious ceremony at Croydon .

Kabali’s ambitious flight plan charted a daring course from Croydon to Karachi (then British India), with stops in Paris, Marseilles, Pisa, Rome, Tunis, and beyond . Despite smooth take-off and successful navigation over most of Europe and North Africa, a sandstorm between Tobruk and Tripoli forced a crash landing in Libya. Miraculously, Kabali escaped serious injury .

Undeterred, he had the wrecked “Feather of the Dawn” transported - by road (and possibly sea) - back to the Bombay Flying Club, where aviation pioneer B. M. Damania led the aircraft’s meticulous restoration . By 1931, Kabali had resumed flying, proudly noting that the “plane flew beautifully.” He later served as a pilot for Air Services of India Ltd, which eventually merged into Indian Airlines in the mid-1950s .

Kabali’s aviation legacy lives on in the Marathi book Vaimanik Kabali by Gajanan Shankar Khole, preserving the story of this determined pioneer for generations to come