Dr M Shivakumara Swamy

Dr P Nilakantan
Dr S R Valluri
Professor R Narasimha
Dr K N Raju
Professor Satish Dhawan
Dr R A Mashelkar
Dr PRamamoorthy
Prof U R Rao
Dr B R Somashekar
Mr K Venkatachalam
Dr K S Yajnik
Dr M V V Murthy
Dr A C Raghuram
Dr Indira Rajagopal
Dr S Srinathkumar
Dr M Shivakumara Swamy
Dr S Nagabhushana
Dr J P Pichamuthu
Dr Srinivas Bhogle

I find it most remarkable that every project that Dr Swamy participated in, or led, was successful; this must doubtlessly be due to his unique mix of engineering and managerial skills.

Dr M Shivakumara Swamy
A tribute which appeared in the Information Pasteboard

Dr Shivakumara Swamy, who retired from NAL on 31 May 2001 after spending over 30 years with the Lab., could be described as the quintessential aeronautical engineer. Starting with his M.Tech in 1960-62 (when he was one of Prof Satish Dhawan's favourite students), Dr Swamy's career first took him to HAL (1962-70) and then to NAL (1970-2001) when Dr S R Valluri invited him to help the Lab in its aircraft projects. There were also a few breaks from NAL when Dr Swamy worked abroad, notably with Lockheed in USA.

Dr Swamy's distinguished career has had several remarkable highs: valuable data generation on the MiG aircraft in 1971-73, involvement with the remarkable HS-748 aircraft investigations during 1972-75, some amazing improvisations with G Rajendra and others in the 1.2m wind tunnel in the 1980's to study missile trajectories -- leading to the development of the captive trajectory rig, the challenge of developing the LCA 1/4 scale highspeed air intake model in record time (and in the face of a severe foreign exchange crunch) in the early 1990's and, finally, (through the 1990's) leading NAL's twin civil aviation programmes, notably the HANSA project involving design, fabrication, structural testing, weight reduction, test flying and type certification.

I find it most remarkable that every project that Dr Swamy participated in, or led, was successful; this must doubtlessly be due to his unique mix of engineering and managerial skills. I have also never seen Dr Swamy unduly perturbed even in the face of serious personal or professional crises. He has battled diabetes for three decades and, a few months ago, won another battle with a heart ailment. We wish Dr Swamy a happy retired life -- at least for a few months! He should soon be back to advise NAL on its SARAS programme.

Srinivas Bhogle