NEWS

Indian aerospace and defence manufacturing giant Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) will produce the first passenger aircraft to be designed and manufactured in the country. The state-run organisation was bestowed the unique privilege after it got the nod from launch customer, the Indian Air Force (IAF), pipping Indian private sector companies such as Mahindra Aerospace and Larsen and Toubro Ltd. The 14-seater, multi-role Saras will be the first passenger plane to be designed and manufactured in the country. Saras is a product of the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), a state-run laboratory for civil aircraft design. So far, all aircraft design and manufacturing activity in the country has been conducted by HAL or the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and that too for military use.

VIEWS

That the IAF should choose HAL as the production agency for the first commercial aircraft to be manufactured in India comes as no surprise. HAL already has a fully developed facility at Kanpur for assembly of transport aircraft, the experience of two similar major projects in the past and has provided product support to the IAF for several years. In contrast, there is no denying that the private sector lacks the knowledge, experience and expertise to handle a project involving the integration of a passenger aircraft.

Initially, HAL was to have developed the Saras in collaboration with Russia. However, with the collapse of the latter HAL developed cold feet, prompting NAL to embark on the project. Established in 1959 at Delhi, the National Aeronautical Laboratory was relocated to Bangalore in 1960. Subsequently renamed National Aerospace Laboratory, it is one of 40 civilian R&D laboratories under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India, an apex body under the central government. India’s only civilian aerospace laboratory with primary focus on the Indian space programme, it is also involved in projects in a host of other disciplines outside the regime of space.