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The National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) is India's first and largest aerospace research firm established by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Delhi in 1959. The firm closely operates with HAL, DRDO, and ISRO and has the prime responsibility of developing civilian aircraft in India. It concentrates on research in advanced topics in aerospace and related disciplines.

Based in Bengaluru, the NAL employs a staff of about 2500 of which 350 are full-time R&D professionals. ''citation neede''d">ikipedia:Citation_needed.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Wikipedia:Citation needed">''citation neede''d/small> NAL is equipped with the Nilakantan Wind tunnel Centre and a computerized Fatigue testing, fatigue test facility. The NAL also facilities for the investigation of failures and accidents in the domain of aerospace engineering.

History

On 1 June, 1959, the National Aeronautical Research Laboratory (NARL) was set up in Delhi, with Dr. P Nilakantan as its first Director. In March of 1960, it set up an office in the stables of the Palace of Maharaja of Mysore on Jayamahal Road, Bangalore, as the National Aeronautical Laboratory (NAL). The first Executive Council was chaired by JRD Tata. Its members included Prof Satish Dhawan and the designer Dr. V M Ghatage. Originally started as the National Aeronautical Laboratory, it was renamed National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) in April 1993. The renaming aimed to reflect its growing involvement in the Indian space program, its multidisciplinary activities, and global rebranding.

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The National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) is India's first and largest aerospace research firm established by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Delhi in 1959

Current Projects

RTA-70 (Indian Regional Jet)

CSIR has approved ₹300 crores ($75 million) to design an aircraft that can carry 70 passengers on short flights. The project will be called RTA-70. NAL would use the money to design a digital concept plane in about two years. Additional funding for the ₹2,000 crores RTA-70 project and partner projects will be secured. A prototype will be built and flown in four years. The prototype would be a 70-seat plane. It will be one of a family of aircraft with three variants. There will be a 70-seater, a 50-seater and an extended 90-seater version to be called RTA-90 with an option of either a Turboprop or a Turbofan as the power source

Products

Aircraft

* NAL HANSA - Light-weight Trainer Aircraft

The maiden flight of CSIR-NAL's light trainer aircraft, now called Hansa, took place on 17 November 1993. The aircraft is an ab-initio two-seat, all-composite aircraft, certified by the DGCA in the year 2000 under JAR-VLA certification. DGCA has promoted the use of the Hansa-3 by various flying clubs; a total of fourteen aircraft are in operation. Thirteen aircraft are currently operational in India. Ten of these are with various flying clubs and one is with IIT-Kanpur.
* NAL/HAL SARAS - Multirole light transport aircraft

SARAS had its maiden flight on 29 May 2004. The aircraft took off at 08:15 and flew for about 25 minutes. SARAS is the first civilian aircraft designed and developed in India. Two prototypes have been built and flown (176 flights) by ASTE (IAF) flight crew. The third prototype aircraft (production standard) is under production at CSIR-NAL. Features include composite wing VERITy (Vacuum Enhanced Resin Infusion Technology), empennage, rear pressure bulkhead, front fuselage top skin, and control surfaces. The aircraft will be equipped with an all-glass cockpit including EICAS and 3-axis autopilot (limited authority). It will be powered by 2x1200 SHP turboprop PT6A-67A engines (Pratt & Whitney) driving 5-blade MT-Propellers. SARAS is capable of flying up to 30,000ft (cabin altitude 8,000ft) and is capable of operation from short runways. Certification is in progress by CEMILAC and is to be completed by 2013. SARAS has been designed for many roles including executive transport, light package carrier, remote sensing, air ambulance, etc.

* NAL NM5 - Five Seater - General Aviation Aircraft
C-NM5 is the country's first public-private partnership (PPP) for the development of civil transport aircraft in collaboration with M/s Mahindra Aerospace Pvt Ltd (MAPL). On 1 September 2011, a milestone event for India's first public-private partnership in aircraft development, and a bold dream became reality; C-NM5 designed & developed jointly by CSIR-NAL & Mahindra Aerospace successfully undertook its first flight in Australia. C-NM5 is powered by a 300 HP piston engine driving a 3-blade propeller cruising at a speed of 160 knots with a maximum AUW (All Up Weight) of 1525 kg; a glass cockpit is a customer option. It is an ideal aircraft for air taxis, air ambulances, training, tourism, and cargo.

Unmanned aerial vehicles

* NAL / ADE Black Kite
* NAL / ADE Golden Hawk
* NAL / ADE Pushpak

See also

* Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
* Mahindra Aerospace
* Tata Advanced Systems

References

*HAL Abandons RTA-70 Project
HAL abandons Regional Transport Aircraft project
The tirbune, 29 November 2016

External links

National Aerospace Laboratories

CSIR, India
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Aerospace
Research institutes in Bangalore
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
Companies based in Bangalore
Aerospace companies of India
1959 establishments in Delhi