I was listening to the address of the prime minister to the Indo-US business conclave during the first week of July. His announcement that India needs nearly 1,000 medium-capacity aircraft for connecting small towns to metros and inviting investors to come forward was an exciting one for the aeronautics community in India. This has been a dream for many of us for a quarter of a century.
Though we have made remarkable progress in the field of rocket and missile technology, we were hesitant to take up the development of an indigenous passenger aircraft for civilian use. It was the late Dr Abdul Kalam who mooted the idea of giving a thrust for aircraft development when he was president of the Aeronautical Society of India in the early 90s. It only partially succeeded. While Kalam was the DRDO chief, he launched the indigenous development of a light combat aircraft (LCA).
A separate entity, Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), was created for this purpose. It was an autonomous society under DRDO, knowing well that such sophisticated activities cannot be run under strict government controls. Today, we have a light combat aircraft of our own developed by ADA, produced by HAL and inducted into all defence services. An advanced version of this will make India self-reliant in this field.
The National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) was established way back in 1959 under CSIR in 1959, before ISRO took birth. Its mandate was to carry out research, establish test facilities and undertake development of small and medium class aircraft for civilian use. It was headed by great scientists like Dr Velluri, Prof. Dhawan and Prof. Narasimha. They established wind tunnels for aerodynamic characterisation and new technologies in composite material back in the 70s. India’s first satellite launch vehicle SLV3 was benefitted by the technical expertise at NAL and the facilities there. The NAL also developed two-seater trainer aircraft like Hansa.
The need for creating indigenous capability for aircraft was felt and a programme was initiated in 1980. The feasibility study itself took almost a decade and in 1991, a project for the development of a 12-seater aircraft development was started. The initial plan was to implement it with support from the then USSR. On its breakup, this fell through as did the cryogenic rocket for ISRO. Finally we decided to go ahead in 1999 on our own and the first flight of Saras, a 12-seater aircraft, took place in 2004. Two prototypes were realised as part of this programme.
Several hours of flight trials successfully demonstrated its capability to take off from a short runway; it had most modern flight control systems, a novel concept of pusher engines mounted at rear, etc. The initial model had a mass overrun of nearly 900 kg and the NAL had plans to optimise the same through extensive use of composite material. But during the flight proving of the second prototype in March 2009, an unfortunate crash took place in which the precious lives of two experienced pilots and one flight engineer were lost. A detailed probe concluded that the failure was caused by a wrong procedure adopted for switching off the engine and restarting it in flight. The sequence was tried for the first time and there was apparently a communication gap between the engine designer and the team that evolved the flight test programme. There was nothing wrong with the aircraft design or realisation. Since then, several attempts were made to put back the programme on track but it has not succeeded. Had it been pursued vigorously, we would have had a small 12-seater aircraft doing air taxi air ambulance and military surveillance. I understand a modified version with 18-seat capacity to primarily meet the requirements of defence has been started by NAL recently.
While all these were happening, a proposal to set up a high powered committee (HPC NCAD) was approved by the government in 2010 to assess the feasibility of realising indigenously a 90-seater passenger aircraft. It had eminent scientists like Prof. Narasimha, Dr Kota Harinarayana, administrators like Chandrasekhar, etc. Dr Upadhaya, Director of NAL, was convenor and I had the opportunity to chair the National Civil Aircraft Design (NCAD). We assembled a team of 100 experts: some seniors who had retired from service and 50% young engineers. Within a short time, the market survey was conducted based on which detailed specifications and a preliminary design report were prepared. Using this, a detailed project report for implementation was drawn up. It was submitted within a record time of one year in 2011 to the government.
The major recommendations were: the country needs nearly 300 90-seater aircraft to provide regional connectivity; based on market survey and technology assessment, a configuration using proven turbo fan engine similar to the Embraer aircraft was finalised; indigenous development and production is feasible using the knowledge and experience of NAL, HAL and ADA; infrastructure available with government institutions for technology and design development is to be maximally used; the development phase was to be fully funded by the government.
The report presented business models, management structures and proposals for a joint venture. The Planning Commission reviewed the HPC report and recommended that such a programme is required with government funding for development phase and JV mode for series production. The general consensus was such efforts would enable further development of high technology industry in India and integration into the global aviation industry. In-principle approval was given by the then PM in 2012. In 2013, the Centre decided that the NCAD may be implemented jointly by NAL and HAL through a special purpose instrument and a seed money of `10 crore was sanctioned.
Still the project got into turbulence with basic questions on use of old propeller engines or configuration using turbo fan engines as in all modern passenger aircraft. This was debated at HPC meetings and it was recommended that we go for a turbo fan engine for passenger convenience, speed and availability of engine, as propeller configuration similar to the ATR, which was tried by several operators for short haul was a failure. Non-availability of a modern engine and overall discomfort of low speed, added noise and lack of adequate AC were other disadvantages. Still NAL was confused and generated a new proposal for a propeller version virtually derailing the NCAD proposal. The only advantage being projected was it was suited for military transport needing operation from extremely small airstrips. But the passenger aircraft configuration may not suit military transportation, which would need a wide body configuration. The development of an aircraft for military use has to be delinked.
As there was no progress since 2013, the matter was later brought to attention of Dr Harsh Vardhan, the then minister of S&T under which NAL and CSIR come. He took immediate action as confirmed during his foundation day speech in 2016 in which he said that the matter was being taken up with the civil aviation ministry. But by that time, the configuration issue was opened up.
In a statement placed before Parliament, it was stated that the government is considering developing regional transport aircraft as well as other types of planes and helicopters. In a written reply to the House, Union minister Jayant Sinha said the issue of development of a Regional Transport Aircraft (RTA) under the NCAD programme in India was considered during a meeting on 18 May 2018. Further actions have been taken up as per the decisions at the meeting.
Now, since the civil aviation ministry is responsible for realisation of civilian aircraft and associated ecosystems, I am sure much more focus will be there for NCAD. As seen in the past, the wandering nature of R&D, lack of focus and complex process of decision-making are some of the ills haunting civilian aircraft development in the country. Successful management models as demonstrated by atomic energy and space programmes have to be adopted for the NCAD programme of nearly `20,000 crore (much of which will be recovered during the production phase), which needs to synthesise the efforts of multiple agencies, education institutions and industry.
G Madhavan Nair
Former ISRO chairman