The public sector defence lab, National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), is looking for more private sector partners to commerialise its research. The lab is presently in advanced stages of commercialising its domestically-designed single-engine five-seater general aviation aircraft jointly with Mahindra Aerospace Pvt Ltd (MAPL).
“We want to engage the private sector for many more projects under the public private partnership model. In fact, we have not succeeded in getting any private sector company to partner us for commercialising Hansa, a light passenger aircraft. But, we have Mahindra Group participating with us for NM5-100, a five-seater aircraft. We are now looking for private sector to partner us to commercialise Micro Air Vehicles (MAV),” A R Upadhya, director, NAL said.
NAL also recently signed an agreement with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to commercially manufacture Saras, a light passenger aircraft, he said.
Addressing a press conference after the CSIRNAL Foundation Day celebrations, he said, NAL wants to commercialise more and more technologies developed by it over the last few years. The experimental aerodynamics division of NAL, which is jointly headed by G Ramesh, developed the MAV over the last three years.
MAV is a small vehicle, which is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), and can be used for various strategic and civilian applications. Already, the Chandigarh police and the Karnataka government have come forward to use the MAV for rally monitoring and mapping mining areas respectively.
“We have demonstrated the capabilities of MAV to Chandigarh police and delivered them two units for pilot project. The Karnataka government has indicated its requirement for mapping the mining areas in the state. We are yet to give them a demonstration,” Upadhya said.
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MAV can also be deployed for surveillance by the armed forces and used in disaster management like in floods among others, he added.
Hemant Luthra, President, Systech Sector & Member of the Group Executive Board, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, said the test flight of NM5-100 aircraft would be done by the Diwali festival in Australia. “After securing the certification from Australian authorities the aircraft will be taken for test flights in India by mid-2012. We will then apply for clearance from the Director General Civil Aviation (DGCA) later on and launch it for commercial use thereafter.”
He said Mahindra Group has also come forward to join hands with NAL to commercialise the MAV developed by NAL. “We have just shown our willingness to partner with NAL. We will be happy to commercialise it as and when they offer it to us,” he said.
In the next five years, Mahindra Group is looking at a revenue of $125 million to $150 million from its aerospace business that includes both sale of aircraft and components, he said.