First Flight: Indian-Made Saras | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-10.06.25

AirborneNextGen-
10.07.25

Airborne-Unlimited-10.08.25

Airborne-FlightTraining-10.09.25

AirborneUnlimited-10.10.25

Mon, May 31, 2004

First Flight: Indian-Made Saras

"It Was A Good Flight"

The first Indian-built civilian aircraft made history Saturday, successfully completing its first flight with what executives at India's National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) called "a good flight."

"It went off very well," said NAL Director B. R. Pai, quoted by the Press Trust of India.

For NAL, it was a long, expensive road to the Saras' first flight. Design and construction on the aircraft began in 1991. But after India's nuclear weapons tests in 1998, the US slapped a technology ban on New Delhi, dramatically slowing development of the project.

The prototype Saras was powered by two pusher turboprop engines designed and built by Pratt & Whitney of Canada. It flew at an altitude of almost 7500 feet after taking off from HAL Airport in Bangalore. The initial flight lasted approximately 20 minutes. Officials said it averaged a speed of approximately 150 kts.

NAL hopes the Saras (named for a type of crane native to India) will fill a number of civilian roles, from cargo transport to 14-passenger commercial carrier.

FMI: www.cmmacs.ernet.in/nal/pages/saraspg/sarashm.htm

Advertisement

More News

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (10.12.25): High Speed Taxiway

High Speed Taxiway A long radius taxiway designed and provided with lighting or marking to define the path of aircraft, traveling at high speed (up to 60 knots), from the runway ce>[...]

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (10.12.25)

“If we have a continual small subset of controllers that don’t show up to work… they’re the problem children... We need more controllers, but we need the b>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: PBY Catalina-From Wartime to Double Sunrises to the Long Sunset

From 2022 (YouTube Edition): Before They’re All Gone... Humankind has been messing about in airplanes for almost 120-years. In that time, thousands of aircraft representing i>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (10.12.25)

Aero Linx: National Agricultural Aviation Association (NAAA) NAAA provides networking, educational, government relations, public relations, recruiting and informational services to>[...]

Airborne 10.06.25: FAA Furloughs, Airshows Hit By Shutdown, Livestream Accident

Also: Pilot Age Cap, Skylar AI Flight Assistant, NS-36 Mission, ALPA v Shutdown The federal government has officially gone into lockdown mode. The FAA will be laying off around a f>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC