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Even as Rama and his brothers are becoming archery experts, Meghnath and his brothers (Atikaya, Akshayakumara, Narantaka, Devantaka, Trishira) are learning about technical advancements from their guru, Sukracharya, and their grandfather, Mayasura. One day, a well-built and huge man entered Ravana’s palace. This was Prahasta, Ravana’s maternal uncle. Kaikashi, Ravana’s mother and Prahasta’s brother, came out to welcome him along with Ravana’s wives Mandodari and Dhanyamalini.

Kaikashi: Prahasta, how are you? You never bother to come here usually.

Mandodari: Your brother may not hear you, but he listens to your son, who wants to know how skilled each of our children are for warfare practice.

Kaikashi: What? They are just children!

Dhanyamalini (laughs): To you, they will always be children. They are already as tall as I am.

Prahasta: I am the commander-in-chief of Ravana’s army. It is my job to train the princes as warriors to rule the country. Besides, you don’t know how skilled Meghnath is. Sukracharya has high praise for him. The army of the devas is already scared of him. Anyway, where are the little warriors?

Dhanyamalini: They are already in the arena.

Prahasta: Don’t come there. I may give them hard tasks and I don’t want your emotions interfering and affecting them.

Prahasta leaves the queens and reaches the practice arena, where the six boys are standing, dressed in heavy armour.

Prahasta (shouts): Are you ready?

And blows a whistle. A heavy boom is heard, as experimental pushpaka vimanas reach the ground. The boys look at each other, surprised. They had expected the usual sw0rd fights, archery or combats.

Akshayakumara: This is going to be one-sided. Meghnath mastered these long ago.

Meghnath: Grandfather, except Atikaya and I, the others are not so familiar with aircrafts.

Prahasta: I know. But these planes are not the usual ones. Also today, we will hold an impromptu race between two teams.

Trishira: What is an impromptu race?

Prahasta: During the race, I will give you instructions. Each team has to change the vimana’s shape accordingly.

Devantaka: That sounds like fun. But how can we do this?

Prahastha: The planes are made of “shape memory alloys”. So, you can change the shape of wings or tail as you wish. Now here are the teams and rules.

Team 1 will have Meghnath, Akshayakumara and Trishira. Team 2 will have Atikaya, Narantaka and Devantaka. You have to decide who will be the commander, pilot and co-pilot. Since Meghnath has proven his skills earlier, let him not be the commander but be the pilot and work for team victory by following the commander’s orders. During the race, I may change rules or ask you to accomplish certain tasks. I know each of you; so my tasks are designed to test your learnings, courage, presence of mind, emergency response, team work, and leadership skills.

Meghnath: Sounds fine to me.

Prahasta: I hope you are not disheartened that you are not the commander.

Meghnath: Not at all. The others need more experience so they need this chance.

Prahasta: Good! Now fix your roles and let me know who is doing what.

After a bit of discussion, the two teams come into the centre near the vimanas.

Akshayakumara: I will be the commander of Team 1. Meghnath will be the pilot and Trishira the co-pilot and application specialist.

Atikaya: I will be the commander; Devantaka the pilot and Narantaka the co-pilot and application specialist.

Prahasta: Before you begin, let me show you the capabilities of these vimanas.
Prahasta opens a roll of paper. On it are inscribed images of various wing shapes based on the position of the aircraft’s wing.

Prahastha opens a huge paper role and it had images of various wing shapes based on position of wing on the aircraft.

Prahasta: Your vimanas are capable of changing the mount positions. Buttons are provided in the cockpit. Here are the types based on wing position:

High mount: low speed (subsonic), high lift

Mid mount: high speed (supersonic)m high lift and manoeuvrability

Low mount: High speed, high lift and medium manoeuvrability

Parasol mount: low speed, better view for pilot

Gull wing: improves visibility of high wing arrangement

Inverted gull wing: provides diving strength, reduction in drag

Dihedral: Highly stable and regains position after high stunts manoeuvres

Anhedral: Reduced stability and used during heavy stunt practices

Next, we will look at the types based on wing shape:

Elliptical: highly stable lift generation

Rectangular and straight wing: low speed / subsonic speed

Delta wing: Supersonic, hypersonic speeds

Swept back wings: supersonic speeds

Straight wing and trailing edge: low speed with reduced drag

Straight wing and tapered trailing edge: low speed, reduced turbulence

Remember, all rectangular wings will make the vimana move at low or subsonic speed. Elliptical and trapezoidal wings will give the vehicle stable lift generation. All other arrow shapes will give high or supersonic or even transonicspeed. Now, are you ready?

Boys (in chorus): Yes.

Both sets of teams sit in their respective vimanas and wait for the whistle that will signal take-off.

The author is the founder and CEO of Vaayusastra Aerospace, an IIT-Madras incubated ed-tech startup that offers Air Science workshops for children between five and 14 years.

Illustrations: Sahil Upalekar and Satheesh Vellinezhi

Now here is an activity for you. With Atikaya and Akshayakumara being the commanders of their teams, we’re going to use the word COMMANDER in this Word Flower. The letter ‘M’ in the middle will appear in all the 30 words. Now go ahead and find seven-letter, six-letter and five-letter words that use M.