BIJU PATNAIK March 5, 1916

A buccaneer of the kind they don’t make any more, Patnaik founded an airline, ran many industries and built the port of Paradip. As a pilot, he escorted the Indonesian Prime Minister from Java to India, eluding Dutch colonialists, and piloted the first plane that took Indian soldiers to Srinagar to fight Pakistani intruders in 1947. A giant of his time.