The Hindu : India at Asian Aerospace

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 03, 2004

Business

Business

India at Asian Aerospace

By C. Manmohan Reddy

SINGAPORE, MARCH 2. India's strong presence at the Singapore Asian Aerospace Expo which ended on February 29, was marked not only by the Oohs! and Aahs! when the Surya Kirans demonstrated their acrobatics every day during the six day long extravaganza but also by the commercial recognition that India got.

An initial order of US$5 Million from the American company Bell Helicopter on Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for tail rotor blades was a sign of Indian engineering showing that it was capable of matching global manufacturing and commercial competition in this hi-tech industry. This order is significant because it was not for a component that HAL was already manufacturing under existing technical or other collaborations, but for an entirely new design. The composite rotor blades are to be manufactured at the world-class facility recently established at the Bangalore complex of HAL.

That the Surya Kirans piloted by IAF flying instructors at the controls of what is essentially a 1960's design showed that in the very demanding area of formation aerobatics training, skill and discipline can make up for deficiencies in equipment. It must be said, however, that although the Kirans first took to the air in the 60's they underwent some modifications in the 70's and were re-engined with a more powerful power plant in the 80's.

It was also very unusual to see formation aerobatics carried out by a trio of Dhruv Helicopters now coming off HAL's manufacturing lines. The Dhruv, which was earlier called Advanced Light Helicopter, is widely acknowledged to be the world's best in the 5 to 6 tonne class. In a conversation with this columnist, a senior Singaporean Minister acknowledged HAL's expertise in the wide area of aerospace engineering - and that is a coup in itself.

HAL's success must not take away from the fact that smaller Indian companies operating under the SIATI umbrella were actively courted by many international companies and the results of enquiries launched at Singapore are likely to see fruitition in the months and years to come.

All this does not mean that India stole the show at what is acknowledged to be perhaps the second most important aeronautical exposition in the world. Prominent amongst the exhibitors were the various units under Singapore Technologies or ST as it is widely known. These range from companies that manufacture small arms to Unmanned Arial Vehicles (UAVs) and stealth frigates with a displacement of 3000 tonnes each. Some of ST's subsidiaries also showed off their expertise in network fusion and software.

This exposition also showed the UAV coming of age with almost every large manufacturer and integrator from Dassault of France to Boeing, Lockheed and Northrop showing off their wares in this area. For those inside and outside the aerospace community who thought of the UAV as something small and inconspicuous, the giant Global Hawk on show (static display) after its recent successes in Afghanistan and Iraq must have been an eye opener.

The flying displays showed off to good effect the American F15 and F16 fighters and the B-1 bomber, the French Mirage 2000 and Rafale and, unusually, a single F111 from the Royal Australian Air Force. The Rafale and the F15 appear to be front runners in a small (20-25) aircraft order from the Singapore Airforce.

Mock-ups of the Eurofighter Typhoon, the SAAB Gripen and of the Joint Strike Fighter (F35) also drew crowds of onlookers, but kept well away from the general public was the JSF's cockpit simulator with radically new concepts in sensor fusion and display. One of them was a single 20 by 8 inch display driven by image generators rather than the more general multiple cathode ray tubes or even LCD displays. This large touch screen can be sub-divided into over a dozen separate displays reconfigurable at a moments notice either by the pilot or the `service.'

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