Partner yet to be found for Saras

Bangalore: The inability to find a production agency for its 14-seater turboprop Light Transport Aircraft, Saras, is continuing to prevent the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) from securing an order from the Indian Air Force (IAF). Though NAL, a Council for Scientific and Industrial Research laboratory, has been in exploratory talks with private players such as Larsen and Toubro and Taneja Aerospace, an industrial partner to produce India’s first commercial civilian aircraft is yet to be found.
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, the country premier aircraft manufacturer, has already expressed its inability to be associated with the production of the Saras.
Says M.S. Chidananda, Programme Director of NAL’s Civil Aviation programme and Head of the Centre for Civil Aircraft Design and Development: “We have to have an industrial partner, who will produce the Saras, provide training, and ensure a continued supply of spares, product support and possibly even maintenance.
Without an industrial partner, the IAF will not look at us seriously.”
The IAF is looking for an aircraft that will supplement and possibly even replace its 23-strong Dornier (Do) 228 fleet.
While NAL will attempt to secure airworthiness certification for the Saras in India, Mahendra Plexion Technologies, which is NAL’s development partner for the programme, will build two prototypes and also try for the airplane’s international certification, initially in Australia, and then the United States.
26/09/07 Ravi Sharma/The Hindu

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Categories: New Sep 2007