The 14-year-old son of an American friend wanted a nose wheel to fit to his toy Super-Constellation. JRD responded to the order promptly. The boy wrote back, "Dear Uncle Jeh, the wheel looks nice on the aeroplane. Thank you for putting springs in it. I think you are very clever." Little did the young lad know that the "clever uncle" who fitted out his toy plane would make aviation history—the first Indian to have a private pilot's licence and later to set up Tata Aviation Service (Tata Airlines) in 1932. 

The letter and the licence form an integral part of theTata Central Archives (TCA) in the heart of Pune. Set up in 2001, TCA is a treasure trove of Tata corporate and social history. An exhibition marking JRD's birth (July 29,1904) centenary is on at the TCA. The museum has replicated both JRD's home workshop, with pliers and tools, and his Bombay House office, complete with ashtray though he had given up smoking. 

On display also are JRD's school timetable, his pilot's logbook, a rare photograph of JRD and Ratan Tata at the Boeing factory in Seattle, and many letters, including a handwritten one from Indira Gandhi, addressed "Dear Jeh", when he was removed as chairman of Air-India in 1978. "I am sorry that you are no longer with Air-India. It was the meticulous care you gave to the smallest detail, including the decor and the saris of the hostesses, which raised Air-India to the international level and indeed to the top of the list."