· NAL gets an IV injection from Ministry of Science & Technology
By Brig VK Atray
Bangalore. 16 February 2017. NAL gets it shot in the sagging arm and a morale booster when Dr Harshwardhan , Minister of Science & Technology unveiled Hansa 3 at Aero India 2017. Under a MoU the Hansa-3 aircraft has been handed over to M/s Mesco Aerospace Pvt. Ltd. at Aero India by the Minister.
In addition to carrying out hobby flying, the aircraft will be used as a flying platform for flight testing and experimentation, and programs such as validation of Enhanced Vision System and Structural Health Monitoring are expected to benefit from flight testing on Hansa. CSIR-NAL demonstrated flying and static display of HANSA in the air show which attracted many visitors.
The modified version of Hansa, designed & developed by CSIR-NAL is a two seat all composite light aircraft for ab-initio flying training. This was certified by DGCA in the year 2000 as per JAR-VLA. 14 Aircraft have been built out of which 12 aircraft have been allotted to government flying clubs through DGCA. CSIR-NAL has collected feedback from operators, customers, personal interaction with pilots in the recently held ‘Light Trainer Aircraft User Meet’.
The feedback has led to the current proposal on Hansa–NG aimed towards; alternate materials and manufacturing methods for large scale time bound production; all glass cockpit, steerable nose wheel, electrically operated flap and LED lights (navigation and anti-collisio n); enhanced endurance and range capability including IFR operations; use of MOGAS to reduce operating cost, and finally large scale indigenous components, LRUs, etc. for subsequent series production. CSIR-NAL with type certified Hansa-NG will identify Private Industry partnership for series production and marketing.
Minister applauding the laboratory mentioned that on his first visit to NAL 2 years back he was excited about the facility available at NAL. However, due to an accident sometime back their projects were put on back burner. Another lab under CSIR dealing with Aerospace research was CSIO , Chandigarh.
He stated that both were doing good work and needed a push in dynamic way so as to use their ability for public use. NAL is first of its kind& oldest which started in 1959.Wind Tunnel Research facility was first started in NAL .Later they worked on missiles, rockets, aircrafts& LCA. Important components of Tejas were developed by NAL.As in its mandate, CSIR-NAL has designed and built two seat ab-initio all composite aircraft ‘Hansa’. A total of 15 aircraft were built and are in use with various flying clubs in the country.
