Bengaluru: A civil aircraft initiative that ended in failure in 2009 following a crash that killed three test pilots has been revived again by the government in an effort to address the issue of India’s failure to manufacture a single civil aircraft on its own. The SARAS civil aircraft programme at the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), which was shelved in 2009, has been revived with funds from the Union Science and Technology Ministry. The decision comes on the back of projections for the civil aviation industry in India showing a steep demand for small civil aircraft to service regional needs.
“We have taken up the SARAS programme quite aggressively. In fact, in future we would want to convert it into a 19-seater aircraft. A new prototype has been developed with all modifications done after obtaining feedback,” Union Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan said at Aero India 2017 on Thursday. The project has been revived after analysis of the 2009 accident revealed that the crash of prototype of the 14-seater SARAS was a result of procedural lapses and not technical issues, a senior official at NAL said.
The project has been revived through a prototype that was already with NAL and ground tests of the Pratt and Whitney engine are being conducted at the Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment. A new test flight for the prototype is likely in a few weeks’ time, NAL officials said. New NAL Director Jitendra Jadhav, who was brought into the CSIR-affiliated laboratory recently with a mandate to revive the civil aircraft initiative, has stated that around Rs 400-500 crore would be needed to build new improved prototypes of the SARAS for testing in the coming days.
17/02/17 Johnson TA/Indian Express
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“We have taken up the SARAS programme quite aggressively. In fact, in future we would want to convert it into a 19-seater aircraft. A new prototype has been developed with all modifications done after obtaining feedback,” Union Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan said at Aero India 2017 on Thursday. The project has been revived after analysis of the 2009 accident revealed that the crash of prototype of the 14-seater SARAS was a result of procedural lapses and not technical issues, a senior official at NAL said.
The project has been revived through a prototype that was already with NAL and ground tests of the Pratt and Whitney engine are being conducted at the Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment. A new test flight for the prototype is likely in a few weeks’ time, NAL officials said. New NAL Director Jitendra Jadhav, who was brought into the CSIR-affiliated laboratory recently with a mandate to revive the civil aircraft initiative, has stated that around Rs 400-500 crore would be needed to build new improved prototypes of the SARAS for testing in the coming days.
17/02/17 Johnson TA/Indian Express
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