Ranjan Dutt

Ranjan Dutt
7th Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Air Command
In office
28 October 1966 – 31 March 1968
PresidentSarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Zakir Husain
Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi
Preceded byYeshwant Vinayak Malse
Succeeded byHirendra Nath Chatterjee
5th Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Training Command
In office
23 March 1959 – 12 April 1960
PresidentRajendra Prasad
Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru
Preceded byKanwar Jaswant Singh
Succeeded bySurendra Nath Goyal
Personal details
Born(1921-09-30)30 September 1921
Bengal Province, British India
Died13 August 2009(2009-08-13) (aged 87)
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Spouse(s)Claude Marie Dutt De Cavey (m.?; died 2010)
ChildrenAyesha Dutt, Shunith Dutt
RelativesJackie Shroff (son-in-law)
Tiger Shroff (grandson)
Alma materRAF Cranwell
AwardsVir Chakra
Military service
Allegiance British India (1940–1947)
 India (1947–1968)
Branch/service Royal Indian Air Force
 Indian Air Force
Years of service1940–1968
RankAir Vice Marshal
UnitNo. 32 Squadron RAF
No. 94 Squadron RAF
No. 4 Squadron IAF
No. 1 Squadron IAF
No. 20 Squadron RAF
No. 10 Squadron IAF
No. 8 Squadron IAF
No. 2 Squadron IAF
CommandsEastern Air Command
Training Command
No.1 Air Force Academy
No. 1 Squadron IAF
Battles/wars

Air Vice Marshal Ranjan Dutt, VrC (30 September 1921 or 1922 – 13 August 2009) was a former air officer of the Indian Air Force. He last served as the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Air Command. Prior to that, he was the managing director of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

In 1940 Dutt was one of the 24 Indian pilots seconded to the UK for operational training and squadron service. There he was selected for fighter training and subsequently spent the summer of 1941 protecting convoys through the English Channel and flying Hurricanes with No. 32 Squadron RAF after the Battle of Britain. He served in North Africa and the Middle-East in the latter part of that year before returning to India to join No. 4 Squadron IAF at Peshawar, North-West Frontier. There, he flew sorties from Miranshah in the Datakhel operations. In June 1944 he became one of the first Indian flight instructors at a training unit in Risalpur. The following year he completed a flight leader course at RAF Tangmere in the UK, and then joined No. 8 Squadron IAF in Mingaladon as a flight commander.

Later, in a senior post at the Operational group, Dutt led several air missions in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948. On 26 January 1950 he was awarded the second Vir Chakra.