Finaly…this just made my day! 😀
*******
In a major milestone, the first prototype of India’s indigenously developed civilian passenger aircraft Saras was rolled out at a ceremony in Bangalore on Tuesday.
The 14-seater, multi-role aircraft with feeder airline and air-taxi operations as its primary roles rolled out of the hangar at National Aerospace Laboratories, signifying a major step in India’s entry into the civil aviation market.
Saras is expected to take its maiden flight by the end of June 2003, top officials of NAL which has developed the aircraft, said at the ceremony.
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research director general Dr R A Mashelkar, department of science and technology secretary V S Ramamurthy, and NAL director B R Pai were present on the occasion.
T S Prahallad, former NAL director, said the second prototype of Saras would fly in March 2004 and between the first two prototypes, 400 hours of flight testing was required before seeking certification from the Director General of Civil Aviation.
He said Indian Air Force was ‘taking interest’ in Saras for its special missions and talks were on with them.
It would take two years for commercial production of Saras, Prahallad told reporters.
Limited series production of six Saras aircraft for IAF would begin in two years and the first one would be delivered in 2006 after which the market potential for the aircraft would be explored.
To a query, he said the Saras project was hit by sanctions (imposed in the wake of India’s nuclear tests) resulting in a time overrun of about 18 months.
Sanctions did not affect much in terms of cost as it overran only by 4-5 per cent, he said.
NAL officials said production of Saras developed under a Rs 131.38 crore (Rs 1.313 billion) project of the Union government is likely to be taken up by public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, which is a major technical partner in the programme.
Saras can also be used in several roles, including as an executive transport, light package carrier, remote sensing, coast guard, border patrol and air ambulance, they said.
By: Grey Area - 19th February 2008 at 10:05
Moderatorial Mumblings
Is it just me, or has someone resurrected a five year old thread?
Bizarre…… :confused:
GA
By: steve rowell - 19th February 2008 at 08:30
Is it just me, or do none of the links on this thread work?!
Same here
By: Bmused55 - 19th February 2008 at 07:55
Is it just me, or do none of the links on this thread work?!
By: Arabella-Cox - 19th February 2008 at 07:34
Does Saras Makes Sense???
Charging customers for nation-building? news
NAL has priced the aircraft, which took nearly 2 decades to develop, at nearly $10 million apiece when similar aircrafts cost only half as much on average. The Air Force is said to have ordered as many as 40 planes and NAL estimates the total domestic market demand at around 200 planes over the next 15 years. If there are sufficient orders, NAL says it can bring down the price to around $8 million.
“It is easy to pull down an indigenous programme development on costs. Look at the contribution to aerospace development in India.” This is what a NAL director said when someone questioned him on the pricing.
At $10 million, there is no chance Saras can compete with models from foreign manufacturers and private domestic buyers will not even consider it. The only buyer will be the Air Force, because it will have no choice. Saras will be a commercial disaster and NAL may never get sanction for similar projects in future. So much for the ‘contribution to aerospace development’!
If this was such an important project for building domestic capabilities, NAL should get the government to subsidise part of the development costs and price the aircraft more competitively. Sales will obviously be higher at a lower price and manufacturing costs will come down. Private sector companies will be keener to partner NAL when they see a competitively priced product which will sell. This will help NAL to develop superior manufacturing capabilities and sufficient funds to further improve the product to make it even more competitive. More importantly, the Saras project will be seen as a success and NAL can easily propose even more ambitious projects.
An Indian Dreamliner or A380 to take on Boeing and Airbus, maybe!
By: batbay - 4th February 2003 at 16:44
RE: Saras, India’s first passenger jet, unveiled
For me, that is a very pretty aircraft. I’n not technical enough to be able to comment on the propulsion however. Any comments from Wysiwyg?
By: KabirT - 4th February 2003 at 15:27
RE: Saras, India’s first passenger jet, unveiled
Yes but Piaggio was a huge failure….hope the Saras comes out well.
By: EGNM - 4th February 2003 at 14:35
RE: Saras, India’s first passenger jet, unveiled
Pusher props! – ok it aint quite a technical term but i know what i mean – similar to the Piaggio P188 but larger by the looks of it
By: KabirT - 4th February 2003 at 13:08
RE: Saras, India’s first passenger jet, unveiled
By: Dutchy - 4th February 2003 at 12:55
RE: Saras, India’s first passenger jet, unveiled
Do you have a picture of it Kabir?
regards,
JW
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February 4, 2003 at 12:26 pm