India to design, build 90 seat aeroplane

[Contrarian]

India to design, build 90 seat aeroplane

Bangalore: India’s largest public research agency, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, or CSIR, has approved Rs300 crore ($75 million) for its Bangalore aerospace lab to design an aeroplane that can carry 90 passengers on short flights, and compete with planes of Franco-Italian aircraft maker ATR in Indian skies.

National Aerospace Laboratories, or NAL, the CSIR lab focused on civil aircraft development, is building the regional transport aircraft, or RTA 70, as the project is called. It would use the money to design a digital concept plane in around two years. The money will also be used to improve infrastructure at the lab.

Once additional funding for the Rs2,000 crore project and its partners are firmed up, a prototype would be built and flown in four years, said Kota Harinarayana, Raja Ramanna fellow at NAL, who is spearheading the project.

The first prototype would be 70-seat plane. It is a family of aircraft that NAL is designing and will have three variants, a 70-seater, a 50-seater and an extended 90-seater later.

India’s civil aviation industry has seen a boom in recent years with budget carriers connecting metros and smaller cities, prompting the world’s largest passenger aircraft makers such as Europe’s Airbus SAS and US’ Boeing Co. to revise their projections in the country in the next two decades. India has 449 airfields, of which only 66 are in use by airlines and chartered operators.

Regional product: The first prototype of NAL’s 14-seat passenger plane Saras. CSIR’s aerospace lab plans to collaborate with global manufacturers and private firms in India for the regional plane project. (PTI)

Regional product: The first prototype of NAL’s 14-seat passenger plane Saras. CSIR’s aerospace lab plans to collaborate with global manufacturers and private firms in India for the regional plane project. (PTI)

At the same time, Asian countries such as India, China, Japan and Russia, which are investing for their aerospace industry, are building planes to carry passengers on short-haul routes of around 1,000km.

Russia’s state-owned Sukhoi Co., is building a Russian regional jet, in collaboration with Boeing and European aero engine maker Snecma. Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd is building a family of regional jets to carry 90 passengers, which is expected to be ready for service in 2013. China expects its 90-seater ARJ-21 commercial jet, built by China Aviation Industry Corp. to be ready by 2009.

In the next 20 years, there will be a demand for more than 5,000 planes in the 65-90-seat category, due to airlines upgrading from 50-seat planes, and transfer from mainline planes to regional jets due to higher fuel price and lower passenger yield, said Mitsubishi on its website.

Currently, Brazil’s Embraer or Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA and ATR, a joint venture between Alenia Aeronautica SpA and EADS NV, dominate the category of less than 100-seat aircraft in the world, including India, followed by Canada’s Bombardier Inc.

India would focus on turboprop-powered planes passengers in short-haul routes for better fuel efficiency and passenger comfort.

A turboprop is a gas turbine engine used to drive a propeller in an aircraft.

“Fuel prices are not going to come down. With newer technologies, you can make a better plane than what has been built so far,” said Harinarayana, a former programme head of India’s light combat aircraft Tejas. He led it from the concept stage to flying two technology demonstrators of the fighter.

The new plane will have more composites, he said. It will use off-the-shelf electronic components that would be packaged for aircraft standards and embed micro-electrical mechanical systems (Mems), sensors that monitor aircraft health and reduce maintenance costs.

Globally, plane makers such as Boeing are using sensors to monitor structures in its delayed 787 plane. India has a base for Mems under the National Programme for Smart Materials (NPSM), a programme funded by India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation.

Analysts say India’s civil aeroplane project would help build its technologies and capabilities in terms of manpower, but efforts should be made to get rid of public sector inefficiencies that have plagued NAL’s Hansa and Saras aircraft projects.

“There is huge opportunity for such planes. The fear is that if you don’t build it in time, the plane would become obsolete and you will lose the market,” said N.R. Mohanty, chairman of the India operations of Textron Inc., the US maker of Cessna business jets and Bell helicopters. “For this, the private sector should be involved from scratch and deadlines set.”

NAL, which has built the Hansa two-seater trainer and Saras, the 14-seat passenger plane, plans to collaborate with global plane makers and Indian private firms for the regional plane project.

“We will involve private partners right from the concept stage. So they will be able to market the plane better,” said Harinarayana. He, however, did not elaborate.

“We need more investments in aerospace technologies. The market demand is there but there is also competition from other plane makers,” said Ajit Prabhu, co-founder and chief executive of Quality Engineering and Software Technologies Inc., a Bangalore firm that offers engineering services and manufacturing components for global aerospace firms.

Aerospace lab to design, build 90-seat aeroplane - Home - livemint.com

 

[jaison]

“Fuel prices are not going to come down. With newer technologies, you can make a better plane than what has been built so far,”
“We will involve private partners right from the concept stage. So they will be able to market the plane better,”
encouraging news........jus feel sad that i did not have enough marks to choose my fav course aeronautics,,,,,but ece is not that bad too right

 

[Contrarian]

Nah not bad, but which college are you in?

 

[jaison]

panimalar eng college,chennai

 

[duhastmish]

sir
in bullet train imagine local bihari or bhaiye sitting peeling off seat cover to take souvenir. he he that happens man. we need a gap between train traveler and plane traveler.
or else some babu with chameli ka tail will rub his stinking head on my Paul smith shirt. and i cant do nothing except cursing my self. at least that doesn't happen in a plane.

 

[indiatech]

sir
in bullet train imagine local bihari or bhaiye sitting peeling off seat cover to take souvenir. he he that happens man. we need a gap between train traveler and plane traveler.
or else some babu with chameli ka tail will rub his stinking head on my Paul smith shirt. and i cant do nothing except cursing my self. at least that doesn't happen in a plane.

There were proposals of Maglev between delhi-mumbai to start with during late 2004. Project budget estimated at 135,000 crores. To be financed by NRI consortium. Finaly opposed strongly by consortium of RamVilash Paswan -- Nitish Kumar , reasoning that that money would feed millions and will provide drinking water to millions. NRI's pulls out. Now there is no Maglev and there is still no drinking water.

Mumbai to Delhi: 3 hours by train

Why should they oppose to such a Build and operate project? Railway is being ruled for ages by politicians from Bihar. In Bihar there is train to every nook and corners . Still they have the largest thefts of railway property in Bihar.Are those money wasted incapable of feeding millions or providing drinking water to millions.

 

[ju87]

NRI's pulls out. Now there is no Maglev and there is still no drinking water.

Indian socialism at its best

As for passenger aircraft, it's high time we had domestic production. I suppose after designing and building military aircraft, civilian jets should be easier?

 

[BATMAN]

Indian socialism at its best

As for passenger aircraft, it's high time we had domestic production. I suppose after designing and building military aircraft, civilian jets should be easier?

Which military aircraft is on your mind?
Who do you think will be potential customer?

 

[Lockheed F-16]

What a flying coffin with 90 seats?

 

[ju87]

Which military aircraft is on your mind?
Who do you think will be potential customer?

LCA, Kiran trainers, Dhruv, etc. Customers: IAF exclusively so far.

 

[BATMAN]

LCA, Kiran trainers, Dhruv, etc. Customers: IAF exclusively so far.

What is the expected production cost?

 

[was]

lets hope that atleast this will not fail

 

[TOPGUN]

lets hope that atleast this will not fail

Hahah lol lets wish the all the best

 

[duhastmish]

I hope seats will be better than bloody - indigo and go air,
where they sell you cheap ticket and make money by selling SAMOSA AND TEA !!!!

 

[LCA Tejas]

RTA-70 Picture



Bangalore: India’s space agency will be made a partner in the country’s Rs2,500 crore passenger plane project so it can share its technology expertise, infrastructure and programme management skills and help avoid the mistakes and delays seen in previous projects.

Ambitious attempt: An artist’s impression of RTA-70, India’s new generation plane being designed by National Aerospace Laboratories.
The so-called regional transport aircraft, or RTA-70, being designed to carry 70-90 passengers on short-haul routes, is India’s ambitious attempt to build a civilian plane and bridge the gap in aeronautical expertise with countries such as China and Brazil.
The Indian Space Research Organisation, or Isro, “will be part of a consortium,” said G. Madhavan Nair, chairman of the research council of National Aerospace Laboratories, or NAL, a public-funded agency focused on civil aerospace technologies. “NAL will lead the project.”

Nair, a former head of Isro, said the plane project would be run by an independent commercial body, with public and private partners, including an overseas aerospace firm. He did not name the private firms.

The plane project is yet to get government sanction but is listed in the science and technology plan in the 11th Plan that ends in 2012.

Once approved, the plane project will take around six years to build and be certified for operations, said C.G. Krishnadas Nair, president of the Society of Indian Aerospace Technologies and Industries, or Siati, a body that promotes home-grown enterprises in the aerospace and defence sectors.

So far, India’s attempts to build civilian planes has had little success. NAL has built two civilian planes so far: Hansa, a two-seater trainer, is being flown in some flying clubs but is not a commercial success yet. Saras, a 14-seater plane project in the works for nearly two decades, has been suspended till an inquiry is completed into the crash of a prototype in March that killed two pilots.

In the late 1990s, military plane maker Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, or HAL, and Franco-Italian manufacturer ATR dropped a plan to make turboprop planes jointly in Kanpur, citing limited market opportunity.

But economic growth since then and the boom in India’s civil aviation sector has presented a fresh opportunity to build planes locally. NAL officials say the sweet spot would be planes that can carry 70-90 passengers over the short haul (up to 1,000km, say, Bangalore to Mumbai) and does not compete with planes of large firms such as Boeing Co. or Airbus SAS.

Currently, only NAL and HAL build planes in India. In December, Mahindra group become the first private Indian conglomerate to acquire the capability to build aircraft when it bought two Australian aerospace firms for up to Rs175 crore over five years.

For the RTA-70 project, HAL is the manufacturing partner and firms such as Infosys Technologies Ltd and the local unit of US technology firm Honeywell International Inc. are building some technology components, Satish Chandra, convenor for the RTA programme at NAL, said in a lecture on 30 September.

The plane is expected to consume around 30% less fuel than existing 70-100-seater passenger aircraft, and have half their maintenance costs through the use of special sensors and coatings. RTA-70 will be able to land and take off on small runways and use satellite navigation, Chandra said.

“We should make use of all resources (in aerospace) within the country. The aim is to make the project a success,” said Nair of Siati.

In addition to building rockets and launching satellites, Isro is building a capsule to carry astronauts into space and later to the moon; some of the facilities and technologies it uses for projects such as these could complement NAL’s plane programme. NAL, too, builds and tests technology for Isro’s programmes.

While Isro’s record of building rockets and launching satellites has improved over the years, it has seen its share of delays. The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, or GSLV rocket, with an indigenous cryogenic engine, was set for launch by January but has been delayed by at least a year.

Analysts caution that Isro’s bag is full with projects, including planetary and manned space missions, and even if it is used as a partner, the lead agency should take on the onus of completing the project.

“Why just Isro, you can use any resource available in the country, but the least you should do is to have one person or agency that should be accountable (for the project),” said retired Air Marshal T.J. Master, chairman of Master Aerospace Consultants (Pvt.) Ltd, an aerospace advisory. “It should be made a commercial success and that should be the drive.”