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President turns pilot, flies the SU-30 MKI Flanker Haima Deshpande Friday, June 09, 2006 00:27 IST PUNE: “I am a contented man. My childhood dream has been fulfilled,” gushed President A P J Abdul Kalam after his 30-minute joy ride in the rear cockpit of a fighter aircraft (SU-30 MKI Flanker) on Thursday. This feat has made the President the oldest Indian to fly a fighter aircraft. As he was helped out of the aircraft by “co-pilot” Wing Commander Ajay Rathore, after it touched base at the Lohegaon Air Force station, the President’s eyes gleamed with excitement. So affected was...

Space In India :India's Space Pioneer President Designs His Nation's Future Aviation Week & Space Technology 11/22/2004, page 51 Neelam Mathews and Frank Morring, Jr. New Delhi Indian president draws on a career in space, missile work to design his nation's future Dare To Dream At 73, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, India's 11th president, doubts he will be able to get to Mars before he turns 90. But the space and missile pioneer, widely respected throughout his country as a poet, spiritualist, educator, philosopher, writer and rocket scientist all rolled into one, sees no reason he shouldn't be able to get...

Filed at 10:19 a.m. ET NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Voting by lawmakers for India's new national president ended Monday with a Muslim who is the father of the country's nuclear missile program certain to win. The surprise nomination of A.P.J. Abdul Kalam for the mainly ceremonial post by the ruling Hindu nationalist-led coalition was backed by all parties except the communists and his election was seen as a formality. An election commission official said the ballot boxes had been sealed at the end of the day-long vote in parliament and state legislatures around the country. The votes will be counted...