UK pilot recreates World War era flight of British Indian spy and Tipu Sultan's descendant Noor Inayat Khan

London (United Kingdom): A female pilot from the United Kingdom (UK) recreated the deadly mission behind enemy lines undertaken by British Indian spy Noor Inayat Khan, a direct descendant of the 18th century Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan, during the Second World War and used her scholarship for it.

Fiona Smith won the British Women Pilots' Association (BWPA) scholarship in 2021. She decided to carry out a special mission and link it to the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Noor Inayat Khan, descendant of Tipu Sultan, was an SOE agent who had been air-dropped to a field in Nazi-occupied France to carry out covert intelligence.

"My mission was clear to fly from the south of England to Angers, lay a wreath for Noor, and fly back. As it happened, our actual flight coincided with the 80th year of her leaving England," Smith said. Noor Inayat Khan was born in 1914 in Moscow to an American poet mother and an Indian Sufi teacher father. 18th-century Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan was her great-great-great-grandfather. Tipu Sultan died fighting against British rule in India in 1799.

Noor Inayat Khan was flown to France in a Lysander aircraft from a Royal Air Force (RAF) base to a field near Angers in June 1943. The author of Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan' Shrabani Basu appreciated Fiona Smith for her efforts. The British Indian spy was awarded the UK's George Cross and France's Croix de Guerre bravery medals posthumously.

"It is wonderful to learn of Fiona's tribute flight for Noor Inayat Khan. It is even more special as it took place on the 80th anniversary of Noor's departure on her dangerous mission. Noor's story and sacrifice continue to inspire in so many ways", said Shrabani Basu. Noor Inayat Khan never returned from that mission and was executed in the Dachau concentration camp in Germany in September 1994.