‘Saras’, the country’s first attempt to build a light transport aircraft, gets a new life and may get flight tested in about three months in a modified avatar.
The 14-seater plane project targeted for civil uses and for the Air Force and the Army has been idle for the last three years and was presumed grounded.
The CSIR's National Aerospace Laboratories under the Department of Science & Technology, which is piloting the project, has revived and modified the lone prototype.
“It is in good shape and is ready to be handed over for trial flights" by the Air Force’s testing unit, the Aircraft and Systems Test Establishment, also in Bengaluru, according to people familiar with the developments.
The existing prototype has been ‘retro-modified’ and there is a lot of groundwork to do before it meets all the standards, an informed person said.
Officials of the ASTE, which tests all aircraft and equipment during their development phase, confirmed that Saras would be tested by their crew.
Initiated in 1991 and infused with around Rs. 130 crore so far, Saras has had a chequered course. Two prototypes were built and the first of it flew in May 2004. In 2009, one of the prototypes crashed at Bidadi near Bengaluru, killing three ASTE crew who were flying in it.