A month before demise, Dr Kalam wished India’s RTA mission took off again: Dr Kota Harinarayana

By Anantha Krishnan M

https://twitter.com/writetake

Bengaluru, Dec 13: Former President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam wanted aerospace brains in India to chase the dream of developing a homegrown Regional Transport Aircraft (RTA), an idea that got grounded many times.

Speaking to OneIndia on Sunday, Dr Kota Harinarayana, currently a visiting professor with IIT Mumbai said that Dr Kalam constantly reminded the scientific community to get the plane project back on the flightpath.

“My last meeting with Dr Kalam was during the last week of June this year and he wanted me to push various stakeholders to put some life back to the RTA project. He always said that India must have an own RTA programme. It was his intense desire,” says Dr Kota.

Dr Kota is widely revered as the man who gave wing to India’s desi fighter jet programme – the Light Combat Aircrfat (LCA). Often referred to as the ‘Father of LCA programme,’ Dr Kota was closely associated with many missions of the former President.

Interestingly, India’s transport aircraft dream was initially called as RTA-70 (70-seater) and later it became NCAD (National Civil Aircraft Development) project, with a 90-seater mandate.

The National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) played a major role initially and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) too joined hands later. The project saw feasibility studies undertaken by many experts, but finally NCAD ran out of funding and the idea was shelved quietly.

Dr Kota says he hasn’t given up hopes and is pursuing Dr Kalam’s vision. He is of the firm opinion that RTA should be a turbo-prop one, so that it gives an advantage to military operations.

Turboprop RTA best for military operations: “Two schools of thought always existed – the turbofan and turboprop -- and many feasibility studies were also held. I am backing turboprop for the simple reason that it will be easy for our armed forces. Short runways are always an advantage for military operations and only a turboprop can offer that,” says Dr Kota.

He said all the five existing major RTA players are offering 14 different variants of turbofan platforms, including Embraer (Brazil), Bombardier (Canada), Superjet (Russia), MRJ (Japan) and ATR21 (France-Italy).

“ATR and Bombardier are also offering turboprop platforms and we saw a market potential in that segment. Dr Kalam wanted us to push the idea again with the government and industry so that a PPP (Private, Public Partnership) model was in place. He also wanted a proven international player be roped in as a risk-sharing partner,” says Dr Kota.

Time will prove the worth of Tejas: He said only if India took on the challenges head-on, can we master technologies and inspire the industry.

“Now everyone is happy with Tejas and the knowledge the programme imparted to scientists, engineers, industry and the academia. It is the collective responsibility of all those who believe in India’s aerospace capabilities to get the RTA programme going,” he adds.

Dr Kota, who was the former head of Aeronautical Development Agency, also expressed his satisfaction over the government’s decision to order 100 modified Tejas MK1As.

“Good decision and this will further the industrial growth in India. Unless the Indian Air Force buys Tejas in large numbers, how will others show interest? Time will prove the worth of this fighter made in India. Any amount of buying from abroad cannot build technology capabilities within the country,” says Dr Kota, who is also now associated with IIIT, Jabalpur.

On reports of a possible outing by Tejas at the upcoming Bahrain International Air Show, the man who gave a major part of his life to the programme said: “More skies Tejas paint its success story, better days for India’s aeronautical missions.” Copyright@OneIndia

Israel steps up bid to get onboard India's RTA dream

By Anantha Krishnan M
Express News Service

Hyderabad: The Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) continued with their strong pitch to get onboard India's Regional Transport Aircraft (RTA) dream, now taking a new turn with the Aeronautical Society of India promising a vision document for the project. At the just-concluded two-day International Conference & Exhibition on RTA, in Hyderabad, Moshe Zilberman, director, marketing, IAI, said that India should aim for getting the RTA certified within the next five years.
“The rules are different in a civil market. The assembly lines will have to be independent for such a big programme. The Indian government can guarantee orders from operators, Services and private companies. I feel an integrated programme team has to be in place, including those from design, manufacturing, maintenance, civil aviation and operators,” Moshe Zilberman, said.
Dishing out statistics, Moshe said the Indian domestic airliners market is globally the fastest growing and an RTA would give the impetus to the segment. “In the 90-seater segment, there is a potential for 500-1000 aircraft in the next 20 years. An RTA programme will save India around $40 billion,” Moshe claimed.
“The IAI is a recognised member in the exclusive club of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that certify civil aircraft for several years. We have no conflict with India because we are not developing an RTA for us,” Moshe said, while presenting a paper on 'Global Perspective on the Indian Domestics Airliner Market.'
Reacting to IAI's keenness on RTA, a senior official from the Defence Research and Development Organisation said that the final call on the structure and partnership is a matter the Indian government will have to decide. “There were some work done by IAI for the National Civil Aviation Development feasibility study at National Aerospace Laboratories. The interest shown by IAI should be seen as their efforts to get some share of the work from us. We have had ups and downs dealing with IAI in some ongoing projects,” the official, requesting anonymity, said.

Copyright@The New Indian Express

AeSI pledges to propel India's now grounded RTA dream

By Anantha Krishnan M
Express News Service

Hyderabad: India’s dream of developing a Regional Transport Aircraft (RTA) might be far from reality, but the Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI) on Sunday took a pledge at the historical Taramati Baradari, near Golconda Fort, in Hyderabad, to push the case with renewed energy. At the concluding session of the two-day International Conference and Exhibition on RTA, the aerospace brains decided to present a strong case to the government within a month. However, absent from the scene was Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), with not a single official present during the concluding session.

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chief V K Saraswat told Express that the AeSI will present a report based on the thoughts gathered from experts in the field of military and commercial aviation. “A techno-commercial analysis is already in place put out by the National Aerospace Laboratories. We will add impetus to this report. What needs to be built and what needs to be bought should be decided first. Infrastructure, human resources, feasible routes, technology gaps that need to be addressed and funding are some key areas for the RTA project,” Saraswat said.

According to him, India’s RTA programme has to be a public-private company with proper checks and balances.  “Accountability is the key. We need to have a strong project management team. This project should not be lead by a government agency,” Saraswat said. When asked about the absence of HAL officials during the final phase of the event, the DRDO chief said: “I don’t see that as a major issue. They were here yesterday.”

S K Chaudhuri, director, Research Centre Imarat (RCI), felt that an autonomous body should drive the RTA project. “We need to look at

this project from a new angle. A cultural change is must and it can happen only through a consortium of public, private partnership. Automation, upgradation of small airports in the country and the creation of a rugged network are areas we need to focus,” Chaudhuri said.

Keeping in mind the mammoth challenge of certification of the RTA, Charan Das, joint director general, DGCA, felt that the platform must be cleared as per the international standards. “It is a cumbersome process to certify RTA with the existing manpower we have. Roping in an internal agency will be the right idea, which will also give us some exposure in their pattern of thinking and work philosophies,” Das said.

P N A P Rao, former project director of Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) told Express that India should first decide on the partners of this project. “If we are serious, then we should decide who will make RTA. Somebody has to own it first and we can’t repeat the mistakes we made in the past. Today, we have the expertise in developing Tejas and now we must quickly get on with the civil segment too,” Rao said.

Copyright@The New Indian Express