Competing designs being readied for India's indigenous regional aircraft
21 Oct 2008
The details of an Indian indigenous regional aircraft programme will be firmed up around mid-2009, with a government committee submitting its final report over competing proposals for a jet or a turboprop aircraft.
A committee comprising officials from India's defence and civil aviation ministries, state-owned aerospace giant Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), NAL, the Aeronautical Development Agency, the Defence Research & Development Organisation and national carrier Air India, and operating under the aegis of the defence ministry, has been constituted to examine proposals for the Indian Regional Transport Aircraft.
HAL, which has already been designated as the manufacturer of the aircraft, is also in the running as a design bureau. Here it competes with NAL, which has recently developed the turboprop Saras aircraft.
The Government has already set 2013 as the target date for getting the aircraft off the ground.
Government officials estimate it would take about three years to finalise the design of the aircraft and another three to manufacture it. A realistic target, according to them, would be 2016.
Speaking at the recently concluded India Aviation-2008 show, which ran from 15-18 October in Hyderabad, Dr AR Upadhya, director of the state-owned research institute National Aerospace Laboratories, said, "The government wants the Indian industry to develop a passenger aircraft that would harness the technologies we have gained through other indigenous programmes, and put the country on the global aerospace map."
NAL displayed a model of a 70-seat turboprop at the show. The agency has been conducting studies on a regional aircraft for two years now. According to NAL'S Upadhya, the studies have shown that there is likely to be higher demand for a turboprop in the coming decades.
"Fuel efficiency will continue to be a major issue and turboprops will be in demand as a result of this. The regional jet market is crowded with five incumbents, while there are few new plans for turboprops. We can help to plug that gap," he said.
HAL's competing design would a regional jet, which would be a derivative of a multi-role military transport that it is trying to jointly develop with several Russian companies. It also had a model on display at the Hyderabad show. HAL has run into problems with its proposed Russian partners though.
According to government sources, if differences with Russian partners are not resolved HAL would likely strike out on its own.
