Kerala is today celebrating the 75th anniversary of the launch of civil aviation service in the state. It started with a royal touch on this day in 1935 when a plane of Tata Airlines flew in at Thiruvananthapuram with the patronage of the erstwhile Prince of Travancore late Chithira Tirunal Balarama Varma. The DH.83 Fox Moth aircraft, owned by patriarch of the Tata House, late J R D Tata, landed at the small airport at Chaakka on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram, with two passengers and a bundle of mail from Mumbai. Recalling the momentous occasion, the present head of Travancore royal family, Uthradam Trunal Marthada Varma said it was the farsightedness of the popular prince that made the air service a reality at a time when even road and rail connectivity were in its early stages of development in this part of the country. It was his realisation that air travel was going to be a vital mode of transport in the future and a symbol of progress that prompted the prince to make a personal request to Tata to bring Thiruvananthapuram on the aviation map.