As India?s first passenger aircraft project, Saras, struggles to get back on its feet after a crash last year, the programme managers are assembling a new prototype to start flying by March next year besides seeking funding for a fourth test plane.
The 14-seater Saras aircraft project has been grounded for the past 15 months after its second prototype crashed in Bangalore during a test flight, an accident attributed to faulty procedure during an engine re-light demonstration.
?The production-standard aircraft is under assembly. Our expectation is that by the end of the financial year we should be able to fly it,? said AR Upadhya, director of National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) which is building the plane. ?We are confident we will hit it this time with the weight reduction target, a higher powered engine, an autopilot and everything working. We hope this aircraft will be very close to the series production.?
Upadhya said NAL has approached the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for funds of Rs 40 crore to build another production-standard aircraft. ?We have generally been advised that in a programme of this nature there should be at least two,? he said.
So far, the Saras project has been sanctioned about Rs 300 crore for two prototypes and a production- standard aircraft. After the crash, the older prototype will now be refitted with a more powerful engine and modified to resume flight tests.
While NAL is in the process of responding to the concerns raised by the directorate general of civil aviation which investigated the crash, the Saras project was also reviewed last month by a high-level committee headed by former Defence Research and Development Organisation chief VK Aatre and retired Air Marshal P Rajkumar.
?Generally the Aatre Committee has looked at the way the programme has been managed at NAL. Perhaps there are some gaps which need to be strengthened,? said Upadhya. ?It (the review) should strengthen our hand.?
Over the past year, NAL has been working with foreign companies such as Piaggio Aero Industries SpA to redesign the nacelle and Honeywell to develop an autopilot system, besides consulting the Myasishchev Design Bureau (MDB) for fine-tuning the design modification and flight testing.
MDB was the Russian agency that originally partnered NAL when the Saras project was conceived in the early 1990s as an Indo-Russian venture but it had backed out because of financial constraints.
The Russian agency has also indicated the need for more wind tunnel testing, said MS Chidananda, director Saras Programme.
The 14-seater Saras is planned as a passenger and transport aircraft and its first customer is likely be the Indian Air Force.