The indigenous light transport aircraft (LTA) Saras on Wednesday completed the second of the proposed 20 test flights, commanded by Wing Commander UP Singh, Group Captain RV Panicker and Group Captain KP Bhat of the Aircraft and System Testing Establishment (ASTE).
The first successful test flight of the aircraft designed and developed by the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) was carried out on January 24.
According to NAL, a Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) lab, the production model design is expected to be ready by June-July this year. CSIR director general Girish Saini said that the cost of the development and certification of Saras-Mk2 will be around Rs 600 crore with a time period of about two to three years.
Union science and technology minister Harsh Vardhan said: "The project was dumped by the previous government, after an accident during test flight in 2009 despite the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) exonerating the aircraft from any design flaw or poor-quality production ... The credit for reviving the project goes to the present government."
Vardhan said that NAL proposes to get the Saras-Mk 2 certified initially for military and subsequently for civil version. He said that Saras would be at least 20% to 25% cheaper than any imported aircraft in the same category. The improved version will be a 19-seater aircraft instead of 14-seater.
"The unit cost of the aircraft, with more than 70 per cent indigenous content, will be around Rs 40 crore to Rs 45 crore compared to Rs 60 crore and Rs 70 crore for the imported ones and has far more benefits than what the imported aircraft offer," he said, adding that it would be ideal for regional connectivity under the Centre¡¯s Udaan scheme.
Defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has been identified as the production agency for the military version of Saras, while the production of civil version will be given to identified private industries. India needs 120-160 aircraft in this genre ¡ª both civil and military versions ¡ª in the next 10 years.
ASTE Commandant Air Vice Marshal Sandeep Singh said that the Indian Air Force is committed to test and thereafter induct the first indigenously designed and manufactured Light Transport Aircraft. "IAF is fully supporting this programme and the design and configuration of the new version of Saras would be frozen soon," he said. Vardhan also inaugurated the Airport Instrumentation Facility of NAL.