Bangalore: The National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), the Bangalore-based constituent of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, is planning to exhibit its two-seater, Hansa 3 trainer aircraft at next month's Avalon Air Show in Melbourne, Australia.

The NAL is sending a team of six to seven technicians — who will be tasked with reassembling the Hansa in Australia — and their pilot Air Vice-Marshal Ajit Singh Lamba (retd), who will demonstrate the capabilities of the tiny all composite aircraft to the Australian public and flying training clubs.

Talking to The Hindu on the sidelines of the Aero India 2007, NAL Director A.R. Upadhaya said the decision to send the aircraft was taken since market surveys had shown that there was a good market for two-seater trainer aircraft in Australia.

"A number of Australian flying clubs are looking to buy aircraft of this class. We could be approximately 20 times cheaper that our competitors."

The main competition for the Hansa comes from the Cessna 152 and the Cessna 172. The Hansa 3 is priced around Rs. 60 lakh.

Attractive features

With several attractive features such as excellent visibility, full dual controls, pleasing control harmony, a proven and a reliable Rotax 914 F3 engine, the NAL designed, developed and manufactured Hansa is a rugged, cost-effective and easy to maintain aircraft.

It is primarily designed for ab initio training, private flying, sport and aerobatics. The Hansa could be used for surveillance missions, aerial photography, coast guard duty and for environmental monitoring.

The Hansa programme got under way in the early 1990s, with the first prototypes flying in 1993 and 1996.

In February 2000, Hansa received its type-certification from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and was cleared for day and night operations.

Certification

But before NAL can sell the Hansa in Australia, they will first have to get the aircraft certified in that country. According to the Head of NAL's Centre for Civil Aircraft Design and Development K Yegnanarayan, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology's Sir Lawrence Wackett Centre for Aerospace Design Technology has agreed to help the Hansa get the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority certification.

"We will leave our aircraft in Australia at the Sir Lawrence Wackett Centre for a few months, with their pilots flying it and applying for certification," Mr. Yegnanarayan said

Though NAL had initially manufactured the Hansa on its own and are again doing so, in the interregnum they had had one produced by Taneja Aerospace and Aviation Limited (TAAL), a Bangalore based private company. TAAL produced one aircraft, he said.

Technology transfer

According to Dr. Yegnanarayan, NAL is looking to transfer technology to a private company who can then produce the Hansa. Seven Hansas have so far been built by NAL, with the Ministry of Civil Aviation ordering six of them.

Training students

While five Hansas went to Government or government subsidised flying schools at Hyderabad, Thiruvanthapuram, Karnal (Haryana) and Indore, one to Bangalore and another was sent to the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, for training students doing their aeronautical engineering course.

However, the woeful state of government flying schools in India, thanks to a shortage of qualified flying instructors, has affected sales of NAL's two-seater Hansa from really taking off.

Dr. Upadhaya also announced that NAL had entered into an equal cost and work sharing collaboration with Mahindra Plexion to develop a four-five-seater general-purpose aircraft.

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