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APJ Abdul Kalam, who died of cardiac arrest at 83 on Monday, is known for many things: he was India's Missile Man, he helped develop the nation's first satellite launch vehicle and he was also one of the country's most popular presidents. But he was also responsible for one project that barely gets talked about: India's first indigenous hovercraft. Project Nandi, at the Aeronautical Development Establishment, was thrust on Kalam's shoulders early on.

At the time, he had little knowledge of how to design such a craft, particularly the kind of propeller that would be necessary for it to work. So Kalam spent 10 Sundays going to a professor at a small room on the IISC campus learning to perfect the design. And by the end of it, Project Nandi as not only successful but it was also ahead of schedule with a working prototype.

By that time, however, VK Krishna Menon was no longer the Minister of Defence and the government decided to put it in cold storage. But it was not all in vain. The hovercraft program piqued the interest of the Director of Tata Institute Of Fundamental Research who called Kalam for an interview. As a member of the selection committee, Vikram Sarabhai, known as the father of the Indian space programme and the founder of ISRO, took interest in Kalam and selected him as a rocket engineer. Kalam would never look back.