Are IITians hyped out of proportion???

[HH]

IIT Kanpur ... GLIDING AND SOARING CENTER

A visitor to IIT Kanpur has a pleasant surprise, a well-laid airstrip, a huge hangar and lots of gleaming flying machines. If he is lucky, a joyride in a glider to view the splendid green IIT campus and the glittering waters of the Ganga. It is a fact that, world over, you least expect to see such aviation setup in an educational institute. It is therefore natural that the question is asked, why this setup at IIT Kanpur?

The IITs were set up by the Government of India for providing engineering and technological education of internationally recognized excellence. IIT Kanpur received collaborative technical assistance from a consortium of nine leading US universities when it was being set up. Considering the intense research potentials and rapid growth in the field of aviation at that time, it was decided to establish the faculty of Aeronautical Engineering at IIT Kanpur. Under the USAID educational assistance project, an all-weather 884x61 m small airstrip was set up with a Flight Laboratory. The Lab was equipped with Piper PA-18 and Cessna 182 powered aircraft and Schweizer 2-22 and Schweizer 1-26 gliders. A Rohini glider, designed and developed at Technical Center of Civil Aviation Department and manufactured at HAL, was the jewel in the crown of the Flight Lab. The open cockpit, side-by-side seating, fabric covered wooden structure glider became very popular among students and used extensively for research work. Soon the Flight Lab. swung into action and the gliders were aero-towed to desired heights with students on board for the complex studies of aerodynamics and flight mechanics. ...

Visit:
http://students.iitk.ac.in/glidingclub/gliding.htm