When APJ Abdul Kalam used missile technology to help children walk

APJ Abdul Kalam worked with defence researchers and doctors to develop lightweight calipers for children with mobility difficulties. The collaboration showed how advanced aerospace materials could serve an everyday medical need.Former president Kalam helped bring aerospace materials expertise into the world of medical rehabilitation. (Photo: Generative AI by India Today)New Delhi,Oct 15, 2026 15:58 ISTDid you know the missile man of India had a major role in ensuring handicapped children could walk?Dr APJ Abdul Kalam is remembered as the Missile Man of India, the scientist who helped shape the country's defence and space programmes before becoming its 11th President. But one of his most touching scientific contributions had little to do with rockets or missiles.In one of APJ Abdul Kalam's most remarkable contributions, advanced materials associated with India's defence programme found a purpose far removed from the battlefield: helping children take a step forward.In the mid-1990s, Kalam helped bring aerospace materials expertise into the world of medical rehabilitation, contributing to the development of lightweight callipers for children with mobility difficulties. Dr APJ Abdul Kalam was an Indian aerospace engineer and science administrator who served as president of India from 2002 to 2007. (Photo: PIB) The innovation transformed a device that could be cumbersome to wear into a much lighter support, demonstrating how technology developed for demanding defence applications could serve an everyday human need.FROM MISSILES TO MEDICAL DEVICESChildren with conditions affecting their ability to walk, including disabilities associated with polio require callipers, or leg braces, to support their limbs and stabilise their joints. Conventional devices at the time were heavy, making movement physically demanding for children with weakened muscles. The solution lay in advanced composite materials. He realised that the material used in a missile is designed to withstand extraordinary forces. Kalam, working with medical professionals and defence researchers, helped adapt carbon-based composite technology to develop lighter orthotic supports. Former president APJ Abdul Kalam with children wearing the clippers. (Photo: PIB) The new callipers reportedly weighed around 300 grams, compared with approximately 3 kilograms for conventional versions, a reduction to about one-tenth of the original weight.For children who needed to lift and move their legs repeatedly while walking, that difference could make everyday movement considerably less strenuous.The work is associated with collaboration involving the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and doctors at Hyderabad's Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS). The technology was subsequently taken forward for wider production, including through the Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO).The Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), in its account of Kalam's life and work, records the lightweight callipers as a significant example of advanced materials being applied to medicine. Its biography also notes that more than 50,000 children had received the devices.THE HUMAN SIDE OF ADVANCED SCIENCEThe innovation illustrated why materials research can have applications far beyond the field for which it was originally developed.Aerospace composites offer high strength relative to their weight, making them valuable in applications where every kilogram matters. With appropriate design and medical testing, such materials can also help make assistive devices lighter and easier to use. Dr Kalam's project team consisted of doctors, orthotists, plastic engineers, mechanical engineers and software engineers. (Photo: Getty) For Kalam, widely known as the Missile Man of India and later as the country's president, the project offered a powerful lesson that scientific progress should improve people's lives.Dr Kalam later described seeing children move with the lighter callipers as one of the moments that gave him his greatest happiness.In a 2005 address at an FRO distribution camp, he called the device a “spin-off product of Defence Technology” and recalled that parents were moved to tears when they saw the difference it made.The achievement was not the work of one individual alone. It depended on collaboration between defence scientists, doctors, engineers and manufacturers.In the end, the significance of the technology was not measured in a missile's range or speed, but in something far more personal: making it easier for a child to walk.- Ends