SARAS (indigenous light transport aircraft) completed its second test-flight successfully in Bengaluru.

Today’s is the second of the 20 test flights planned for SARAS PT1N, before freezing the production version. The first successful test was carried out on January 24. The design and development of the aircraft is being done by CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL).

Rejected earlier

Union Minister for Science & Technology Harsh Vardhan, who witnessed the flight, congratulated the team behind building the aircraft and said the flight commanders deserve special appreciation for their courage to fly an aircraft which was rejected earlier.

“The project was dumped by the previous government, after an accident during test flight in 2009. Though the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had exonerated the aircraft from any design flaw or poor-quality production, no effort was made to revive the project,” he added.

The credit for reviving the project is due to the thrust to ‘Make in India’ mission. It is the culmination of joint team efforts of ASTE, DGAQA, CEMILAC and HAL. According to NAL, the production model design is expected to be ready by June-July this year.

Production agency

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.

Currently, India needs 120-160 aircraft in this genre — both civil and military versions — in the next 10 years.

Harsh Vardhan said “SARAS Mk-2 will be ideal for commuter connectivity under Centre’s UDAAN Scheme for variety of applications like air taxi, aerial search/survey, executive transport, disaster management, border patrol, coast guard, ambulance and other community services.”

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