Cry of the Eagle : The Life & Times of an Aerospace Engineer

These memoirs of a restless Aerospace Engineer cover a life and career in seven different countries, from his early days in Lahore; to his time in Nanking, China; followed by his boyhood adventures at the Lawrence School Sanawar, India, and St. Marylebone Grammar School in London, England; and finally encompassing his professional activities in the UK, France and Canada recalling both happy and tragic times.

His aeronautics and space career spans over forty years and the first hand narrations of his flight tests in biplanes to jumbo jets and helicopters, has one entranced. We read first hand how the International Space Station Programme was initiated and see the early designs and sketches that look as if they came from a modern-day Leonardo da Vinci’s Scrapbook!

Interlaced are the personal stories including breathing life again into an abandoned two hundred year old farmhouse in the South of France; to designing and building a house for his family in Ottawa; and living in the Canadian wilderness, in a rescued ancient log cabin, at one with nature; to facing challenges and tragedies with fortitude.

The book includes hundreds of photographs, including some artistic images of his beautiful wife, which give us a very personal glimpse into the life and mind of this rather impatient artist and engineer who rose from humble beginnings as a refugee from the India/Pakistan Partition to being considered by some as one of Canada’s Space Pioneers.

Parvez Kumar was born in India during the last decade of the British Raj. As a child he experienced the horrors of the Partition, the uncertainties that Independence brought to a new India, and the takeover of China by the Communist Regime. Educated at the Lawrence School Sanawar, one of the top boarding schools in India, and at St. Marylebone Grammar School in London, England, he graduated as an Aeronautical Engineer from Imperial College, London, in 1962 and obtained a Doctorate from Southampton University in 1968. He has lived in seven different countries, assimilating their cultures, while his varied and successful career in aviation and space included working in the academic, industrial and government sectors in the UK, France and Canada. As a former glider and power pilot, and a flight test engineer, his experience is enviable. He pioneered many â*œfirstsâ** in Canadaâ*™s Space Programme and is considered by some to be ranked amongst Canadaâ*™s space pioneers. He has given lectures at Universities and Schools across Canada; is a Professional Engineer and was the Resident Engineer at a Junior School in Ottawa encouraging the youth to take up engineering as a profession; is a Fellow of the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute, and a past Adjunct Research Professor at Carleton University, Ottawa. He is now retired and lives with his wife in the rugged and beautiful countryside of Vancouver Island.