Did an Indian man make an airplane or flying device in 1895?

Question

I've come across a lot of Indian sources claiming that an Indian man named Shivkar Bāpuji Talpade made an airplane or flying device in 1895.

Shivkar Bāpuji Talpade (1864 – 1916) was an Indian scholar who is said to have constructed and flown an unmanned airplane in 1895. Talpade lived in Bombay and was a scholar of Sanskrit literature and the Vedas.

from Wikipedia

Move over Wright brothers -- it was Shivkar Bapuji Talpade who first flew a flying machine over Chowpatty in 1895, eight years before the American siblings, according to the abstract of a paper to be presented at the 102nd Indian Science Congress in Mumbai on January 4.

from the Hindustan Times

There is even a high budget movie about him called Hawaizaada or Bambai Fairytale.

Answer 1

No. It seems that accounts of Talpade's work originate in a book that appeared around 1904 and which has been long discredited by Indian scientists.

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The article mentioned by DaaaahWhoosh says ...

In 1974, scientists of Bangalore's Indian Institute of Science published a study after examining the theories put out in the treatise, and concluded that not only isn't the work ancient (it cannot be dated before 1904), most of the theories put forth are un- feasible. Noting that Talpade built models under the guidance of Shastry but did not succeed in making any of them fly, the researchers write, 'The planes described above are the best poor concoctions, rather than expressions of something real. None of the planes have properties or capabilities of being flown; the geometries are unimaginably horrendous from the point of view of flying; and the principles of propulsion make them resist rather than assist flying.'

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See A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE WORK “VYMANIKA SHASTRA” by H.S. MUKUNDA §, S.M. DESHPANDE § , H.R. NAGENDRA §§ , A. PRABHU § , AND S.P. GOVINDARAJU § Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore ‐ 560012 (Karnataka)

... Dr. Talpade (of Bombay) tried to make models under the guidance of Shastriji, but that he was not successful in making any of them fly.