Path Traversed During The Golden Year... : Advisors

Path traversed during the Golden Year...
Directors Message
Messages from our Well Wishers
NAL in 1960 1
The Mandate 2
The Beginning 3
NAL Today as an Organisation 4
Organisation Chart 5
Architects of NAL 6
NALs Mission 7
50 Years of National Aerospace Laboratories - A Golden Journey 8
Committees of NALs Golden Jubilee Celebration 2008-2009 12
Calendar of Events 13
International Conferences 19
National Conferences / Seminars / Workshops / Lectures / Courses 38
Aerofest 85
Lab Events 100
Facilities inaugurated during Golden Jubilee Year 130
Distinguished Visitors 139
Visitors Impressions 148
Press Clippings 162
We thank all our Well-Wishers 170
Advisors
Dr A R Upadhya
Dr Sajeer Ahmed
Dr M Ranjan
Chief Editors
C V Giri Raj
Dr M N Sathyanarayana
Editorial Committee
Dr G K Suryanarayana
Dr Abhay Pashilkar
N Shailaja Menon
A L Sangeetha
R R Veena
Production Editor
A S Rajasekhar
Graphic Design
P Kannan
Photo and design support
D Freddy
D V Gopalakrishna
A B S Vijai
Editorial Board recognizes the help and support extended
from time to time and thanks all the NAL colleagues.
Speci al acknowl edgement to al l the HODs, AAP,
Conference committee chairmen, Conveners and Members.
Editorial
NAL Golden Jubilee Aircraft Hangar
Shri Prithviraj Chavan, Honble Minister for S&T and ES (I/c), Govt. of India, & VP, CSIR
inaugurating NAL Golden Jubilee Aircraft Hangar on 14 November 2009

Golden Jubilee Year 2008 - 2009

AEROFEST - National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), Surathkal
19-24 December 2008

On 19 December 2008, a microlight rally was flagged off at the Jakkur Airport. Eight microlight aircraft
and NAL's Hansa were lined up for a flag-off of an event that was to unfold over the next five days.
The microlight safari, led by Dr. B. R. Pai, former Director, NAL, was one of the significant
components of Aerofest 2008. A day prior to that, some of us headed to the National Institute of
Technology Karnataka (NITK), Surathkal to make arrangements for other components of Aerofest
2008, viz., a one day knowledge sharing workshop and an exhibition of NAL technologies.
At Jakkur, Mr. Ashok Nayak, Managing Director, Bangalore Complex, HAL and Mr. Vittal Murthy,
Principal Secretary, Youth Affairs were present along with Dr. A. R. Upadhya, Director, NAL very early
in the morning. After a brief press meet, Mr. Ashok Nayak flagged off the rally. All the aircraft headed
for Hassan. Hansa and some other aircraft headed directly for Mangalore airport. Powered Hang
gliders and other smaller aircraft later landed safely in Hassan for refueling. Deputy Commissioner of
Hassan Mr. Naveen Raj Singh took special interest in making all arrangements for receiving aircraft
and later seeing them off. On an earlier reccee mission to Hassan and Mangalore, we saw a lot of
interest and concern from people in and around Boovanahalli where a new airport is expected to
come up. Therefore, there was a natural curiosity among people when the microlights landed. After
refueling and a small break, the aircraft took off in the afternoon for Mangalore. The aerial route from
Hassan to Mangalore presents many challenges to small aircraft due to thick forests down below and
two major peaks. The weather can change rather quickly and clouding near the peaks can be
hazardous. Fortunately the weather was excellent and all aircraft made it safely to Mangalore airport
by evening.

On the 20th, a mini airshow and public exhibition was planned on Malpe Beach. The party which left
for Mangalore on 18th made preparation for the same on the 19th. Manipal Institute of Technology
(MIT) made extensive preparations. They even had put up bill boards announcing the event at Malpe
Beach. Dr. A.Chincholkar of MIT and his team and the Malpe Police did an excellent job of the
arrangements, and the public could enjoy the show at close quarters. Two weeks before this, NAL's
Clipper Powered Hang Glider (PHG) was transported by road and Dr. Pai had made practice landings
on the beach. By about 10 am, Hansa made a fly past and attracted a large crowd. This was followed
by Zen Air aircraft. PHGs from Indian Navy and X-Air piloted by Vinitha made landings on the beach.
By this time quite a crowd had gathered. We tried to give a running commentary. But it looked like
people were far more interested in seeing aircraft in action. Long-EZ piloted and built by Pavan Kaula
made a huge impression. He made a few agile maneuvers and had even made his own arrangements
to leave smoke trail to add to spectacle. One of the Zen-Air aircraft made a landing as well though it
was not planned to do so. When asked, the pilots said that they felt an irresistible urge to make a
landing on the beach. Once again, the weather was superb. Later, two PHGs and X-Air made low
pass almost in formation and impressed the crown very much. Two paramotors from Para-Regiment
Training Centre, Bangalore hung around and made big impression on young minds. The mini airshow
itself was flagged off by Dr. Raj Warrier, VC, Manipal University. At the end of the show, a small
function was arranged. At this function, Dr. Warrier and Dr. Sandeep Sancheti, Director, NITK spoke.
They expressed their happiness over the event organized by NAL. Dr. Upadhya presided over the
meeting. Suvarna Sadhana and a Souvenir were released during this function. The dignitaries also
formally opened the exhibition. A fair number of public made visits to the NAL stall and two other stalls
set up by NITK and MIT. It was an eventful day. Director NITK had arranged for a beautiful beach-
side dinner. On the 21st, a one- day workshop and exhibition were opened at NITK Surathkal. After a
brief Inaugural session, the seminar was started off with a talk on Chandrayan by Dr. Radhakrishnan,
Director, VSSC. He spoke on the interest of India in the moon after giving a brief overview of the road
travelled by ISRO. He touched upon the benefits of moon explorations and India's place in space. It
was indeed a fine lecture. There were quite a few questions from students. Later Dr. J.J. Isaac spoke
on wind energy initiatives. Mr. Venkataswamy spoke on failure analysis and Dr. Dayananda discussed
smart materials. I spoke on powered hang gliding. Dr. B. R. Pai spoke on aerosports and Dr. Shankar
Narayan spoke on NAL's MAV programme. Mr. Kirti Prakash, a retired CSIR employee spoke on
AEROFEST
85


paper planes which he also demonstrated the following day. MAV flights were also part of the
demonstrations the next day. Dr. Shivashankar of NITK took lead role in arrangements from their side.
The previous day, a press meet was held as well. Since one of the major objectives of Aerofest was to
instill enthusiasm amongst youth to taking up aviation as their profession, air experience flights on
microlights and Hansa were arranged for students from NITK. The students were chosen based on
their performance in a quiz which dealt with history of flight, current developments and basic
engineering. Nearly 60 air experience flights were offered which included some of the dignitaries. It
seemed that the enthusiasm was not only coming from youth but also from those not so young.
Essentially it means that aerospace excites everyone. A Souvenir was brought out for this event
which consisted of popular articles related to microlight flying, powered hang gliding, NCC air-wing
activities, sport flying etc. A number of agencies came forward to sponsor the event. The flight
operations were led by Dr. B. R. Pai with able assistance from Mr. Josy Pullockara,
Mr. Radhakrishnan and Mr. Vijayakrishnan. The event required meticulous planning and attention to
really small details. This was executed extremely well. KTMD played a major role again in organizing
the event. Dr. Sathyanarayana and team looked after the flagging off event at Jakkur. Mr. C. V. Giriraj
led the effort in organizing both the exhibition and the workshop. He also played a major role in raising
funds from a number of sponsors which effectively met the fuel costs and other costs. NITK also
hosted nearly 75 people who descended upon them by road and air. There was no plan to raid them
by water, though that could also have been possible!

AEROFEST - PARK College of Engineering and Technology (PCET),
Coimbatore
710 March 2009.
The first programme of Aerofest in 2009 was arranged at PARK College of Engineering and
Technology (PCET) during 7-10 March 2009. Aerofest is a reach out programme designed to enthuse
youngsters. PCET could not have been more appropriate for this. During preparatory visits to PCET
we learnt that it has one of the largest Aeronautical Engineering Departments numbering a total of
400 plus students at various stages of undergraduate studies. The programme is spearheaded by 80
year young AVM Sheshachari, otherwise known as AVM Chari, who is the director of aeronautics. His
enthusiasm was unparalleled and we found a good home to take our technologies.

As in the previous edition, one day knowledge sharing seminar was scheduled on 7 March followed
by aerial events on 8 March. NAL's technological exhibition was scheduled for 9 and 10 March. We
reached Coimbatore on 6 March and reached PCET by lunch time with all the exhibits packed to brim
in Wind Energy vehicle. Around 4 pm when we were up to our neck in preparation for the event,
Mr. Giri Raj received his first call of major concern. He told us that there was some news about some
aircraft having crashed near Bidadi and the caller said it was Saras. We did not want to believe it. But
fate had already done its deed and calls poured in revealing ugly details bit by bit. An atmosphere of
gloom fell on us. We learnt that Director had flown directly to Bangalore from Hyderabad instead of
coming to Coimbatore as per the schedule. As time passed by, NAL made up its mind that technical
programme must go on and all other celebrations would be off. The aerial event was called off since
Hansa could not fly in.

The students of PCET gave everything they could. On the evening of 6 March students, particularly a
large number of girl students, worked long and hard distributing invitations, drawing intricate patterns
in the lobby, rehearsing for compering of the inaugural programme for the following day and so on.
The inaugural was expected to start at 10 in the morning on the following day. But prior to that, AVM
Chari had ensured that Aakash Ganga team kick-started the event with a magnificent paradrop.
Incidentally, the Aerofest 2009 was clubbed with annual Fliegen event of PARK. Fliegen is a German
word meaning "Flight".

The inaugural started late and ended very late. Dr. Mohan Kumar, Principal, welcomed the gathering.
Dr. Isaac filled in for Dr. Upadhya and gave an overview of NAL's role, its mission, programmes and
technologies. Dr. Ravi, Chairman, PCET, addressed the gathering and the first thing he talked about
was the report of the Saras mishap reported in the news papers. He requested the entire gathering to
stand in silence for one minute to pay respect to those who lost their lives in the mishap. It was a very
kind gesture coming from PCET. Later, he wanted to know how much NALs Hansa cost. He made a
86


commitment to buy one having felt that it was actually cheaper than an expensive Mercedes. It would
indeed be nice to see that Hansa decorates their college and provides an excellent platform for
students to learn to fly. Mrs. Anusha, CEO and Mr. Kartik, Secretary and technical correspondent of
PCET also spoke on this occasion. Dr. Isaac released Aerofest 2009 and Fliegen 2009 souvenir.
Group captain B. K. Dash, station commander, Air Force Station, Sulur also spoke on this occasion.
He made all the necessary arrangements at the Air Force station.

After late high tea, the technical sessions started off with guest lecture on helicopter aerodynamics by
Dr. Syed R. Ahmed, formerly of German Aerospace Center (DLR), Braunschweig. Dr. Isaac spoke
again, this time on "Doing experimental science." A lecture on MAV's was delivered by Dr. G. Ramesh
of EAD and Dr. Mudkavi spoke on "Flight Aerodynamics". Dr. Ranjan later spoke on the Acoustic
Testing programme at NAL. Dr. Ramesh Sundaram of ACD spoke on role of composites. He was like
a school master trying to influence all the students to take up research in composites. The workshop
ended with another lecture by Dr.Mudkavi on "Modelling, Simulation and Equations of Fluid
Mechanics." We later understood that this lecture was more than the students could chew and most of
them were very glad that it was over!! We hoped, however, that at least some bright ones took home
some useful lessons from these lectures.

MAV flight demonstrations were conducted by our energetic and young MAV team. The team is
getting better by the day. Soon after, the exhibition team got into high gear and toiled on 9th and 10th
explaining the intricate models and concepts to one and all. The exhibition was inaugurated by Mrs.
Prema Ravi, patron, PCET. The exhibition was also attended by students from neighbouring colleges.
They included Tamilnadu college of Engineering, Nehru college of Engineering, students from local
schools and general public. PCET also gave away prizes for the winners of AeroQuiz. Our plan to
give air experience flights to the quiz winners did not materialize as noted above.

The support and hospitality extended by PCET to NAL was highly commendable. They made all of us
feel at home. Wing Commander (Rtd). Dr. Haran, took extra care in making all the arrangements.
Incidentally, Dr. Haran took his Ph. D. under the guidance of Dr. Isaac. So it seemed that the relation
between PCET and NAL is much older than it seemed at first sight.

As usual, KTMD team headed by Mr. Giri Raj saw to it that all things were worked out to last details
and executed with precision. He was assisted by Mr. Gopinath, Roshan and his team, Arul, Senthil
Kumar and Gomathy and her team. It is never an easy task putting up your show in somebody else's
home. But they did it. The team is now gearing up for a show at Srinidhi Institute of Science and
Technology (SNIST) Vaughn Institute of Aeronautics and Technology at Hyderabad during 18-20
April 2009.

AEROFEST - Srinidhi Institute of Science and Technology (SNIST), Hyderabad
18-20 April 2009
Aerofest 2009, NALs outreach programme, reached out beyond the boundaries of Karnataka to hold
exhibition and knowledge exchange workshop at Srinidhi Institute of Science and Technology
(SNIST), Hyderabad. It turned out in reality that this culminated in a trinity of events. SNIST runs two
sets of courses. One set offers traditional engineering courses while another set of courses are
organized as a joint effort between SNIST and Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology, New
York, offering courses in Airport Management, Airline Management and Avionics. The degree is
offered by Vaughn College. On morning of 18 April 2009, the events were kick started with an intense
inauguration. It was intense because young Prof. Sastry aged only 75 was fully charged up and called
more than ten dignitaries to the dais, each one introduced in a unique way. The intensity was felt all
through the event. The students never seemed to stop clapping. NALs exhibition was formally
inaugurated by Dr Vijay Saraswat, CC(R &D) and opened to the student community. The rest of the
day a series of seminars were held by SNIST and Vaughn College on India Aviation - Opportunities
and Challenges.

On 19th, NAL organized one day seminar whose format closely resembled those conducted at NITK
Surathkal in 2008 and PARK College, Coimbatore in 2009. Dr. Ranjan Moodithaya spoke in place of
87


Director and gave an overview of NALs capabilities and its golden journey through last 50 years.
Dr. Subir Bhaumik captured the imagination of the students by his lecture on failure analysis in the
context of aerospace activities. I spoke on flight aerodynamics while Dr. Manjunath recounted the
structural integrity activities. Mr. Sampath Rao, NTAF spoke on wind tunnel testing and Dr. Pashilkar
deliberated on flight mechanics aspects. Ms. Anjana Jain spoke on materials aspects. Towards the
end of the day, Dr. J. S. Mathur, CTFD, spoke on the Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV) initiatives of NAL.
Incidentally, NALs MAV team demonstrated the MAV flights at regular intervals throughout the day.
On behalf of Dr. B. R. Pai, I spoke on Aerosports which seemed to interest young audience quite a
bit. Dr. M. R. Nayak did a splendid job by chairing the entire event. Not to be left behind,
Dr. Sathyanarayana proposed vote of thanks with very innovative choice of words.

The NAL exhibition team outdid themselves this time. Several exhibits including the full scale fatigue
test model were brought by Giriraj and his team. The exhibits looked even more impressive in the
grand ambience of SNIST. Carefully prepared full length posters standing more than 6 feet tall and
totaling 50 in number made an excellent impression. The exhibition also included continuous video
displays on plasma screens. The exhibition was visited by students of SNIST, Vaughn and other
engineering colleges and schools. The exhibition and MAV flight demonstrations continued on 20
April 2009 as well. Around 750 students took part in the programme. Prizes were distributed to the
winners of the aeroquiz.

Of course, the event had been planned well ahead by C. V. Giriraj. His team responded extremely
well. The support from SNIST was more than we asked for. Dr. Narasimha Murthy, Principal, SNIST,
was full of energy and provided every possible assistance and ensured smooth functioning of three
events that took place over three days. Though NAL golden jubilee celebrations are drawing to a
close, the Aerofest reach out programme will only end by September with two more events to be
conducted in northern part of Karnataka. I am certain that NAL has made an excellent impression on
young minds through this programme.

AEROFEST goes to MIT
1 - 3 Oct 2009
Once again its time to play with miniature aircraft and planes. The amazing wonder of the airspace
with tiny aircraft is awesome.

Aerofest, which should now be quite familiar to NAL family, continued its journey. Its next stop was at
Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT). Actually, this stop should have come much earlier when
airshow on Malpe beach was arranged in 2008. But we had to make a detour to fit the needs of MIT.

The exhibition team led by Mr. C. V. Giri Raj of KTMD left by road on 29th carrying with them the NAL
exhibits. By 30th, the exhibition was set up in the quadrangle of MITs main building. NIT-K Surathkal
exhibited their unmanned aerial vehicle while MIT showcased their Formula 1 Student edition and an
equipment to derive water from atmospheric moisture. Talking about moisture, there was plenty in the
air and on the ground. It rained all through. But NAL team persisted with it and so did exhibition visitor
from MIT and surrounding engineering colleges that included K V G College of Engineering, Sullia;
NMA Institute of Technology, NITTE; Canara Engineering College, Bantwal and St. Joseph
Engineering College, Mangalore.

The three day festival jointly organized by NAL and Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal was
inaugurated by Manipal University Registrar Dr G K Prabhu at MIT Campus on 1 October 2009. The
Director of MIT Brig. (Dr.) Somnath Mishra and the Joint Director Dr R S Aithal who were present on
the occasion stressed on the need for such Aerofests with MIT being a part of it.

The exhibits displayed included composite parts and smart materials, aero-elastic models, wind tunnel
models, radomes, scaled models of HANSA, SARAS, NM 5, RTA-70, wind turbine model, a working 4
core Flosolver, wankle engines, foil bearing, fatigue testing display model, VHRR mirrors, model of
BLIMP and MAV flying displays. The exhibition was indeed a knowledge Centre as each model
exhibited was instructed as though it was new invention

88


On 2nd October, one day workshop was held for the benefit of MIT students and other engineering
colleges. Nearly 400 students participated in the workshop. We started the proceedings with two
lectures, one by me on how things fly and the other by Dr T. N. Venkatesh, Flosolver Division, on
parallel computing with emphasis on meteorology. This was followed by formal inauguration. Dr R S
Aithal, Joint Director MIT, welcomed the gathering while Brig. (Dr.) Somnath Mishra, Director MIT,
addressed the students. Dr. M. R. Nayak, Advisor, M&A, gave an overview of the programme. He said
that the programme had started on the auspicious Gandhi Jayanthi day. He recalled his early days
and said that MIT was the place where his career was launched. He also remembered contributions of
T. M. A. Pai who created the whole university town of Manipal. Dr. Upadhya spoke next and also
fondly recalled his early life in and around Alevoor village near Manipal and said that it had indeed
been a long journey to the present directorship of NAL from that small place. He spoke on NALs
achievements and gave an overview of its activities, from its inception in 1959 till date. Prof. A M
Chincholkar, coordinator of Aerofest from MIT side, rendered vote of thanks. He was very happy that
NAL had taken this step to come to their doorstep for the benefit of their students braving bad weather
and pathetic road conditions - another reason why one should take up aviation!

The technical talks resumed with a presentation on composites by Mr. Ravikumar of ACD who dealt
with various techniques, technologies and products. Dr. G. K. Suryanarayana spoke on wind tunnel
testing dealing with several interesting and challenging problems. Dr. C. M. Manjunath, coordinator for
Structural Integrity spoke on life extension of aircraft. He discussed the need and methodology and
covered the major contributions of NAL in this direction. Dr. B. R. Pai, former director and chief
architect of Malpe airshow in 2008 spoke on aerosports. He emphasized the need for flying
experience and shared his own hands-on adventures with small flying machines. Dr. Arun Kumar of
ATF spoke on satellite testing illustrated with several pictures of tests conducted at NAL. Mr. C. M.
Ananda spoke on initiatives in avionics and dealt with programmes at NAL from early days to present
and future directions. Mr. Roshan Anthony spoke on the MAV activities of NAL. It was unfortunate that
bad weather prevented demonstration of these little flying wonders. In the end, Dr. Nayak did a fine
job of summarizing the whole days proceedings a difficult task indeed. The long and hard day
ended with prizes being distributed to winners of Aero Quiz that was held a week before.

We learnt later that day that Mr. Shashi Tharoor had remarked that one should work on Gandhi
Jayanthi rather than celebrate it as a holiday. Looking back, we felt that we were ahead of Mr.
Tharoor. We had actually implemented his thought. Nod only did we do a lot of work; we also shared
our knowledge with young minds that day. Nothing can be more satisfying than that. We must
particularly thank all the scientists who travelled over night by bus on bouncy roads and delivered
their lectures with due care. Many of them left that very night making it two sleepless nights in a row.

On the 3rd the exhibition continued in spite of rain. It concluded with a flight demonstration of MAVs
and a paper plane contest for students. Totally 32 students participated from Manipal and Udupi
including 2 students from farther Sagar Shimoga. The whole event was given a wide publicity.

Many thanks to all those who contributed, particularly the youngsters. The MAV team consisted of Mr.
Roshan Anthony, Mr. Suraj, Mr. Varun, Mr. Samuel Vivek Grips, Mr. Vikram and the rest of the
exhibition team consisted of Mr. Satish, Mr. Balakrishnan, Mr. Arul Paligan, Mr Rajendra Prakash, Mr.
K S Venkatesh, Mr. Anand Raj and Mr. Rajendra.

In the end, MITians rejoiced with pride and NAL proved their technical prowess in a big way. Next
stop is scheduled for Belgaum on 28 October 2009.
89


AEROFEST - Web Site

90


National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), Surathkal

91


PARK College of Engineering and Technology (PCET), Coimbatore

92


Srinidhi Institute of Science and Technology (SNIST), Hyderabad

93


Aerofest goes to MIT

94


The seventh edition of the Aero India was held from February 11-15, 2009. The format of first three
days for business and the next two days for general public continued into this year as well. NAL had
set up an even bigger stall this year. A good 160 square metres in all. The stall was based on open
access concept and provided ample space for people to see the exhibits. The technologies were
displayed on the periphery of the stall and a good number of plasmas provided an overview for the
casual onlooker. The central area displayed the one is to one scale mock up of the NM5, scaled
version of Saras. It turned out that the NM5 and the Saras models were the biggest attractions. On
the first day, after the inaugural, aerial display began around 10:30 am with fly past of small boy and
big boy formations as well as mid-air refueling configurations. This was followed by showcasing of
military might. From India, the MiGs and the Sukhois (Su-30 MKI) made their mark while Russians
displayed MiG 35 and other impressive aircraft. Somewhere in between, Saras made its appearance
with its newly painted blue belly. On the style quotient, no transport aircraft can match military ones.
But, nonetheless, Saras made some impressive moves and gave the impression that the pilots were
quite enjoying themselves. Hansa was displayed in the later editions.

The Eurofighter Typhoon and F18 Super Hornet flew fast, flew slow, flew upside down, flew straight
up and flew in every possible way barring going backwards. Typhoon was particularly impressive
performing square loops. The Lockheed Martin C17 military transport aircraft was superbly agile in
spite of its huge size making pretty steep turns at very low altitudes. It also landed using up very little
runway and even taxied backwards!
The Sarang Helicopter team was very impressive. The peacock painted in gold and blue ALH team (in
all four of them) performed some deadly formation flying. They flew one above the other, forwards and
backwards, and crossed each other in different combination. Their performance overshadowed every-
thing and impressed general public a good deal.

The last edition, as always, was that of Surya Kirans. Owing to loss of aircraft and a pilot recently, the
fine aerobatic team used only six aircraft as against their usual 9. As such they lacked some of their
moves like the cross over and the heart. However, they did display their signature move, viz., the
bomb blast.
As far as the exhibition was concerned, it seemed more like what it was the last time around. Of
course, the Americans had a bigger presence this year around. Technologies involving avionics,
aerial support systems, aircraft components, electronics, linkages, software products, simulators,
torpedoes, weapon delivery systems, etc. were on display.

The NAL stall showcased almost all the technologies. They consisted of the Wankel engine,
NALFOQA, Saras and Hansa flight videos, the new Flosolver, radomes, wind turbine, Drishti,
presentations on Computing Fluid Flows and flow diagnostics, Saras EICAS etc. A new addition was
hands-on smart materials related demonstration. This attracted many, particularly on the general
days. A large number of posters derived from the Suvarna Sadhana were abundantly displayed. The
NAL team was rained down with reporters particularly on the first day who wanted to know everything
about our aircraft projects. They seemed like the robot in the movie Short Circuit longing for input
and more input.

The scaled down version of Saras and the mock up of NM5 and the model of new RTA attracted
many. On the first three days, people sat in NM5 and photographed themselves. On the last two days
the crowd was so big that the NM5 and Saras were clicked constantly. A very happy moment for NAL,
indeed. They seemed to have reached one and all. Considering this, NAL has come a long way since
its first appearance with Saras mockup at the first edition. Today the Saras itself is flying while
showcasing the RTA almost on the sidelines. It is almost certain that a lighter, better and compositer
(with its new composite wing, that is) Saras will provide joy rides to its potential customers next time
around. It will be serious business with perhaps the RTA knocking on the doors asking for its place in
the skies. Whatever the future may hold, the present show underlined that technology is indeed NALs
core vehicle. Last but not the least, complements must go to KTMD and all the divisions who made it
happen. Mr. C. V. Giri Raj toiled hard with excellent help from what may now be termed as his
Exhibition Team which has been going around various places displaying NALs technologies.
Complements must, of course, also go to NALs air operation team involving SARAS pilots namely
Wg. Cdr. Praveen, Wg. Cdr. Sunit Krishna, Wg. Cdr. Shah, Wg. Cdr. G D Singh, Sq. Ldr. Jaswal and
Sq. Ldr. Ilayaraja (IAF, ASTE Team) with ground support team led by Mr. P Radhakrishnan and
HANSA pilot Air Vice Marshal A S Lamba and ground support team with Mr. Shijo K Francis and his
team in the lead. Mr. Kamaleshaiah and his team deserve high praises for excellent models.
NAL's Footprint at AeroIndia 2009
95


96


97


NAL displayed its indigenous aircraft and the scaled models at INDIA AVIATION: 2008 held at
Begumpet airport, Hyderabad between 15 -18 October 2008.

Hyderabad India Aviation 2008, the countrys first ever four-day civil aviation exhibition and
conference was flagged off by Honble Minister of Civil Aviation Mr Praful Patel. The event jointly
organized by the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and
Industry (FICCI) had more than 200 exhibitors representing leading aviation and allied industries from
around the world including Airbus, Boeing, EADS, HAL, Rolls Royce, Cessna aircraft co., Bell
Helicopter, ATR and Bombardier.

The composition of static display included 37 international and domestic aircraft from A-380 - the
largest to Pushpak- the smallest airplane. Also on display were Boeing 777, Airbus A-330, Learjet,
Global express, Gulfstream, Beachcrafts, Cessnas and Helicopters including HANSA.

HANSA flew gracefully as always, on each of the four days. Wg. Cdr. Sunit Krishna of ASTE and
AVM (retd.) A S Lamba flew the pretty trainer well and managed a pleasing impression before the well
gathered audience. SARASs exhibition generated a lot of interest.

The mock up models of Regional Transport Aircraft (RTA 70) and size to size mock up model of NM5
aircraft were also displayed at the exhibition in HALL B number 14 of the NAL stall. The 5 seat NM5
aircraft (general aviation aircraft) developed as a private-public partnership venture between NAL and
Mahindra Aerospace Technologies attracted a lot of interest in business visitors and the general
public. RTA-70 is to be developed jointly by NAL and HAL.

Besides aircraft, NALs Radomes and Composites parts were also displayed at the NAL stall. The
multimedia presentation about NAL displayed on the plasma screen got a fair amount of attention.
Top dignitaries like Ashok Baweja, Chairman, HAL, Pradeep Kumar, Defence Secretary, Production,
C G Krishnadas Nair, Former Chairman, HAL and Krishna Mikkilineni - CEO, Honeywell International
India Pvt Ltd visited NAL stall and showed keen interest in our projects.

NAL received good media coverage in VAYU aerospace Review, Aeromag Asia, Indian Aviation and
the official daily -international aerospace magazine.

An exclusive open-house interactive session between the Honble Minister and a congregation of
more than 35 CEOs representing major aviation companies was scheduled on 15 October 2008 to
discuss the future plans and policy issues before the Minister and senior officials of the Ministry.
Director, NAL attended this meet and gave valuable inputs.

NALs preparation for the air show was planned months in advance and the final result was
sufficiently pleasing. The NAL stall attracted a large number of serious visitors, and most of them
enjoyed getting into the pretty mock-up of NM5 aircraft. The NAL stall was the best we had so far.

It s always a relief when an air show is over because all is well that ends well after all the hard work!
One may question whether such participation yields profitable returns? Well, you never know! As it is
difficult to quantify the gains in such situations.

INDIA AVIATION : 2008 at Hyderabad - NAL displays four aircraft
98


99

Path Traversed During The Golden Year... : Advisors

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Path Traversed During The Golden Year... : Advisors

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Path traversed during the Golden Year...

You might also like