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Aeronautics industry should wake up and capture national market, says ISRO chief

Staff Reporter

With the technology available, production of 70-seater aircraft before 2020 is possible: Kalam

— PHOTO: K. GOPINATHAN

Futuristic ideas: The former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and ISRO Chairman G.Madhavan Nair exchange notes during the International Conference on Aerospace Science and Technology in Bangalore on Thursday. NAL director R. Upadhya (left) and the former NAL chief, Roddam Narasimha, are beside them.

Bangalore: With a projected demand of 1,000 new civilian aircraft in the next 10 years, both for long and short haul flights, it is time the Indian aeronautics industry “wakes up and captures the national market,” Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) G. Madhavan Nair said here on Thursday.

He was speaking at the inauguration of a two-day International Conference on Aerospace Science and Technology, organised by the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL).

Mr. Nair said that even if 10 per cent of the national market was captured, it would translate into billion of dollars. “The Indian scientific institutes should work together towards indigenous capacity building.”

The former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, said that with its technological capabilities in aerospace, India should strive to become globally competitive in developing and producing aerospace systems for defence, space and civilian applications.

“There is also need for a new generation of turboprop and turbojet aircraft that are cheaper to acquire and cost less to operate and are independent of costly airport infrastructure and instrumentation.”

Mr. Kalam recommended that the NAL become the nodal agency for working on a 70-seater aircraft.

“With the technology available in the space programme, missile programme, LCA programme and other aircraft programmes in the country, the development and production of 70-seater passenger aircraft before 2020 is possible.”

Mr. Kalam said he visualised a “Virtual Collaborative GRID for Aerospace” to connect the academia, industry, research and development laboratory in India and abroad. “We should look at possibilities of a world knowledge platform between India and partnering nations which will integrate the core competencies of multiple Indian institutions to develop a world class passenger aircraft needed for the world market.”

Chairman of the Engineering Mechanics Unit in the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research Roddam Narasimha said that while Indian aerospace sector had come of age in many ways with investment in human resources, research and development, it was “waiting for a vision.”

The sector was not limited by technology, but by policy, he said. “There is no national aeronautical policy and the aeronautics commission recommended in the 1970s, with the objective of bringing various science institutes under one umbrella, has not taken off,” the former director of NAL pointed out.

The civil aviation sector was booming and in the next 20 years air traffic would be equally divided among Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. “But there is no strong manufacturing programme for civil aviation and little appreciation for the vast opportunities that exist,” said Professor Narasimha.

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