Golden Jubilee Celebration Archives

International Conference on Aerospace Science and Tecnology (INCAST) - June 26–28, 2008

The National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), one of the premier and largest laboratories of CSIR and the only one in the area of aerospace sciences and technologies in the civilian sector, is celebrating its Golden Jubilee starting from 1st June 2008. The Laboratory was established in the year 1959 in Delhi and moved to Bangalore in 1960. As a part of its Golden Jubilee celebrations, NAL is organizing a number of events during the year to highlight its diverse achievements and contributions to the nation in the strategically important area of aerospace. The first in the series was the International Conference on Aerospace Science & Technology (this being the core competence of NAL) held at the National Science Seminar Complex, I I Sc premises , Bangalore during June 26–28, 2008. The objectives of the conference was to bring together the scientists working in the various sectors such as defence, space, civil aviation, academia, R&D, industry etc, bring out the advances made in the country and elsewhere in the world to the Indian aerospace community, and focus on the future S&T requirements in this critical area. The Conference provided a platform for International R&D organizations, academia and industrial agencies to present their latest achievements and to further explore the possibility of deriving synergies.

The Conference was inaugurated on 26th June by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, Honorable Former President of India and one of the most distinguished aerospace scientists in the country. The Inaugural function was presided over by Dr G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, Space Commission, Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman, Research Council of NAL. Prof. R. Narasimha, former Director of NAL and Chairman, Engineering Mechanics, JNCASR, Bangalore released the Souvenir. The function began with Dr. Sajeer Ahmed, Chairman, Conference Organising Committee, welcoming the gathering. Dr. A R Upadhya , Director NAL introduced the Chief guest, Dr. AP J Abdul Kalam to the audience. Dr. M R Nayak, Adviser (M&A), NAL proposed the vote of thanks. The event also received extensive media coverage in the national press and TV. Greetings and Messages of Good Wishes were received from the Honorable President of India, Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Minister of Civil Aviation, Minister of Defence, Governer of Karnataka, PSA to Govt of India, Chairman, SAC to PM, Secretaries of DSIR, DST, DDR&D, DoS and DAE, Chairman,HAL, DGCA, Former DGs of CSIR, Former Directors of NAL, President,SIATI, Director,ADA and many other eminent persons.

In his inaugural address, Dr. Kalam spoke about his long association with aerospace R&D in the country and informed the audience that the Golden Jubilee year of NAL also coincided with the 50th year of his association with aerospace. In his unique, informal style , he emphasized the need for effective leadership and enumerated the qualities of a good leader. He also recalled the rapid indigenous growth of aerospace in the last 2-3 decades and emphasized the need for further growth in aeronautics through development of transport aircraft. He hailed the efforts of NAL to develop a 70-seat transport aircraft RTA-70 incorporating advanced technologies with focus on reduced acquisition, operating and maintenance costs.
Dr. G Madhavan Nair, in his presidential address, hailed the achievements of NAL in the aerospace sector and its efforts towards fostering design and development of passenger aircraft in the country through its Hansa and Saras aircraft and also its initiatives to design a 70-seat aircraft with latest technologies. Dr. Nair also mentioned about the activities of ISRO including the Chandrayan Mission which is expected to be launched soon.

The conference had 6 plenary lectures by eminent scientists in the field and 30 invited papers including 17 from abroad in different areas of specialization. The conference had distinguished invitees from International Aerospace Industries - Boeing and Honeywell, International R&D Organizations - NASA from USA, DLR-German Aerospace Centre, ONERA from France and the International Academia to present the latest developments in the filed of aerospace. The conference also had participants from Netherlands, Canada, Israel and Brazil. About 117 contributory papers and 50 poster papers were presented in the conferences The areas discussed covered the broad disciplines of aerospace engineering, namely Aerodynamics, Structures, Materials, Aerospace Electronics, Flight Mechanics and Controls , Propulsion and Parallel Computing, including theoretical, computational and experimental aspects.

The Plenary talk by Prof. Narasimha brought out the need for an Aeronautics Commission for accelerated growth of aeronautics in the country. He mentioned that though the country had witnessed a boom in the Civil Aviation in the recent years, the boom in Aeronautics was yet to be seen. He recalled the recommendation of the late Dr Vikram Sarabhai to the Government of India in 1970’s about the need for various Commissions including Space and Earth Commissions and added that only the Aeronautics Commission was yet to be realized.

The Plenary talk by Dr. Alan Miller on Boeing 787 aircraft was very informative and showed some of the new technologies adopted in the design of the aircraft. Prof. Inderjit Chopra, University of Maryland reviewed the state-of-the art in the rather complex nonlinear rotorcraft aeromechanics and indicated the future trends in R&D and applications. Importance of Aero acoustics and development of CFD codes and the need to bring out the underlying physics was highlighted by Prof. Sanjiv Lele from Stanford University. The Plenary talk by Dr. A R Upadhya, Director NAL, traced the rapid and remarkable growth of the Laboratory under different Directors during in the last 5 decades and the diversity of its activities and contributions. He concluded with a remark that the NAL will continue to meet the future advanced S&T requirements and needs of national programs while continuing its efforts in the civil aircraft sector. Dr. Kota Harinarayana, Raja Ramanna Fellow at NAL, in his plenary talk, explained the need for mid size turbo prop aircraft for the country and briefed on the various technologies involved in the RTA-70.
The 117 contributory papers were presented in 32 Technical Sessions and the 50 poster papers in 7 Poster sessions. Most of the technical sessions had invited speakers providing the state of art in the area. About 450 delegates attended the conference including about 80 students.

A workshop in collaboration with DLR, Braunschweig, Germany on ’Aerodynamics Database Validation and Update from Flight Data’, was organized during the conference. An exhibition was also organized to display technologies and products in the areas of interest to the conference.

The conference concluded with a Valedictory Function on the 28th Evening. Dr. Sajeer Ahmed, Chairman, Conference Organising Committee summed up the events and presentations over the 3 days. He said that efforts were needed to be initiated to develop collaborations in advanced areas to bring synergy and to economize on time and cost. Dr. A R Upadhya, Director and Chairman of Golden Jubilee Celebrations said that Golden Jubilee Celebrations had started off well with the successful conduct of this Seminar. He thanked all the speakers and delegates for their active participation, the sponsors for their support, and the Organising Committee and others involved on their committed and enthusiastic efforts.

Indo-US Workshop on systems, technologies and opportunities for enhanced regional air transportation in India 8-10 July 2008

A workshop on regional air transportation was held at Eagleton Resorts between 8th-10th July 2008. This workshop was organized by NAL as part of its Golden Jubilee Year celebrations along with support from the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum. Support was also provided by AR&DB and Satyam Computers for the workshop. The principal investigators for the workshop were Dr. Kota Harinarayana, Raja Ramanna Fellow, NAL and Prof. R. John Hansman, Director of the International Centre for Air Transportation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA.

Participants included faculty from MIT, Purdue, Carnegie Mellon University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Stevens Institute of Technology,senior scientists and administrators from FAA and NASA and industry experts from P&W, Rollys Royce, Honeywell etc. Indian participants included academics from JNCASR, CSTEP, IISc, IIT Kanpur, IIT Mumbai, IIM Bangalore, CSTEP etc. From the industry, RITES, Honeywell India, Satyam Computers, Mahindra Aerospace, TCS, CRL etc participated. In addition to NAL, R&D institutions like ADA, ADE and operators such as Air Deccan, Air India participated. The Ministry of Civil aviation was represented by Joint Secretary, Mr. Arun Mishra.

The goals of the workshop included understanding the socio-economic aspects of regional air transportation, developing a set of requirements for the type regional aircraft and associated ground infrastructure, identification of a set of core and enabling technologies and studies on the infrastructure status and future trends.

The workshop commenced with a welcome by Dr. Kota Harinarayana, introduction to the workshop by Prof. John Hansman, remarks by Dr. J.J. Issac of NAL and the role of Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) by Dr. Norman Neuriter of the IUSSTF. In the inaugural talk, Capt Gopinath spoke about how Air Deccan was conceived and how the emphasis was on regional air connectivity. Capt Gopinath believed that the present situation with high fuel costs were in fact an opportunity for developing turbo prop aircraft with systems and products suited to India reducing operational costs. On behalf of NAL Dr. Satish Chandra thanked Capt Gopinath, the US participants, sponsors and others who made this workshop possible.

On day one, Session 1 consisted of studies on socio-economic aspects of regional air transportation, competition from other modes of transport like railways,issues of development and economic multiplier effects from air connectivity etc. The demography of India, the large number of airstrips and the need to provide linkages using regional transport aircraft was discussed.

Session 2 was about developing a set of requirements for regional air transportation systems. Emphasis was on a systems approach and architectures for regional air transportation including operational concepts towards a conflict free, energy efficient, environmentally friendly air transportation System. The session also included talks on operational issues for regional aircraft, modelling of air traffic networks and maintenance requirements of a New Generation Regional Aircraft. The session culminated with a presentation on the requirements of New Generation Regional Transport Aircraft.

On day two, Session 3 and 4 (9th July 2008) involved core and enabling technology. Prof. Hansman commenced the sessions with a talk on operational concepts and technological opportunities for regional air transportation. Prof Raj Reddy described concepts from the automotive sector which had used intelligent systems and its use in air transportation. Prof. Narasimha provided insights into aerodynamic concepts that would be required to enhance the performance of new generation regional transport aircraft. Discussion on fuel issues related to the environment and costs and the need for drag reduction was discussed. In continuation, next generation propulsion systems were described including reduction in fuel burn and noise levels. Again, the workshop saw discussions on systems issues, use of multi-disciplinary optimization (MDO) Approaches and optimization issues. Use of super Hydrophobic Coatings, Integrated Vehicle Health Monitoring, Structural Health Monitoring was emphasized as technologies that would be required for a new generation regional aircraft. On board technologies like WAAS, synthetic and enhanced vision, information fusion were noted as important to achieve efficiencies in operation of regional aircraft apart from the use of low cost composites.

A cultural program on 9th July 2008 included demonstration of Bharathanatyam and Yakshagana and provided the participants a glimpse of the Indian cultural diversity.

On day 3, (10th July 2008), the session commenced with Mr. Arun Mishra, the Joint Secretary for Civil Aviation (Ministry of Civil Aviation) describing planning for India’s regional air transportation. Dr. Bradford from FAA (USA) provided an overview of the air transportation system modernization in the USA, while Dr. Toner from NASA discussed the role of fundamental R&D in NextGen, a concept of air transportation system for the USA. In continuation, Dr. Sridhar of NASA discussed simulation and optimization methods for regional traffic management. The session concluded with a talk on airport infrastructure networks.

A panel discussion chaired by Prof. Arunachalam elicited considerable response. Many participants considered the workshop of high value in terms of the topics covered and the urgent need to develop systems and technologies to ensure that regional air transportation was viable and fulfilled the desire of many communities to be connected. In particular, a number of participants supported the idea of continuation of interaction and collaboration in the area.

In Prof. John Hansman’s terms, he said “All of the comments I received were extremely favorable and I think a number of interesting connections have been made. I was particularly pleased that there was real appreciation on the Indian side for the need to look at the systems issues including the operational and infrastructure issues. Several people, after the workshop, commented that this was a significant change in thinking and that the workshop had “opened peoples eyes”. Dr. Upadhya, Director, NAL in conclusion said that the workshop had proved useful to NAL and thanked all the participants from the US, India and the organizers of the workshop.

In summary, the workshop provided two major insights : 1) the system’s approach to aviation (air transportation) and its value in adding efficiencies and 2) the need for core and enabling technologies that would be required to develop a next generation regional transport aircraft. There appear possibilities of working jointly on a number of new research areas based on the discussions at the workshop and interactions with the Indo-US S&T Forum.

ANMC21 Working Level Conference on Asian Jet Passenger Plane 2008 20-22 October 2008 Asian Network of Major Cities 21

(ANMC21) that came into existence in the year 2000 is an initiative of Tokyo Governor Mr. Shintaro Ishihara. (see http://www.anmc21.org/english/) There are in all eleven cities enrolled as members of ANMC21 representing 11 Asian countries. Delhi is one of them. One of the key objectives of ANMC21 is the promotion of development of small to medium sized jet passenger plane. The member cities have met on a number of occasions since 2002. During the 2007 meeting held at Tokyo, Dr. Upadhya, Director, NAL and Dr. Kota Harinarayana, Raja Ramanna Fellow, NAL were present in response to an invitation by Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG). A proposal was made by them to host the 2008 working level conference on jet passenger plane in Bangalore. This conference took place on 20 October 2008 at the Eagleton Golf Resort near Bidadi. The primary objective of this conference was to bring together participants from Asian aircraft manufacturers, research institutions, government organizations, parts manufacturers, IT industries, airlines, general trading organizations and so on. There were 27 participants from other Asian countries consisting of members from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MiGHT), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), Marubeni Aerospace Corporation, Sojitz Corporation, Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI), All Nippon Airways, Sumitomo Corporation, Indonesian Aerospace, Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI), Tohoku University, Mitsui and Company and Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation of Taiwan. About 40 participants came from different Indian organizations that included HAL, ADE, GTRE, ADA, CEMILAC, IISc, IIT Kanpur, DGCA, Infosys, Infotech, Confederation of Indian Industries, TCS, L & T, Honeywell, Satyam, Mahindra Aerospace, Tata Advanced Materials and SIATI. Dr. Upadhya, Director, NAL, welcomed the gathering and Mr. Makoto Takahashi, Senior Director in charge of International Joint Projects, TMG, gave his address. The programme consisted of three technical sessions. The first session was chaired by Prof. R. Narasimha, JNCASR. Dr. Kazuhiro Nakahashi, Professor at Tohoku University spoke on the significance of Asian Collaboration for a Jet Passenger Plane while Dr. B. V. R. Mohan Reddy, Chairman of Southern Region of CII spoke on Aerospace Industries in Southern India with regard to history, benefits and future growth. Mr. Chidananda, Programme Director, Civil Aviation Programme of NAL spoke on NAL's Initiatives in Civil Aeronautics covering the Hansa and Saras programmes. Dr. Kota Harinarayana spoke on the new generation regional aircraft development initiative taken up by CSIR and NAL. Mr. Kiyotaka Ichimaru, General Manager of MHI made a presentation on "Flying into the Future." He essentially covered the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) programme in this connection. Mr. S. P. Ray, General Manager (Projects) of HAL covered the Aviation Programmes and capabilities of HAL. The second session was chaired by Mr. Tatsuro Sakai, Former Chairman of Steering Committee of Asian Community Airplane Programme (ACAP) of the Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies (SJAC). Dr. Jiro Nakamichi, Head of Aviation of Programme Group, JAXA, spoke on the Aeronautical Research at JAXA and Development of Japan's Domestically Produced Regional Jet. Mr. Yuichi Hirakami of KHI spoke on the commercialization of C-X/XP-1. The third session was chaired by Dr. Chin Hu, Former President, Aerospace Industrial Corporation, Taiwan. The first part of this session consisted of six short talks by the Engineering Services Industries in India. Infosys, Infotech, L & T, Mahindra Aerospace, Satyam and TCS made presentations on their aerospace related services. This was followed by the final talk on building partnerships as a major role of the Society of Indian Aerospace Technologies & Industries (SIATI). Dr. Upadhya and Mr. Takahashi summed the programme at the end. A short cultural programme on Dances of India was conducted by the Shantala Arts Academy. Mahindra Group sponsored the cultural event and the reception dinner. On 21st October, a site visit was arranged for the delegates from outside India. The delegation visited Infosys, HAL and NAL. The visitors expressed their extreme happiness over the meeting and said that they were very impressed by the capabilities available in India. Both the visitors and Indian participants said that future collaborations with Asian countries should be enhanced. KTMD played a major role in organizing the event.

Indo-US Workshop on Micro Air Vehicles (INDUS MAV ’08) 13-14 November 2008

As a part of NAL’s and DRDO Golden Jubilee celebrations, a workshop on Micro Air Vehicles was jointly organized by NAL, ADE and AFRL, USA on 13-14th November 2008. The US team consisting of members from, AFRL, AOARD, US Army’s RDECOM and MIT was led by Dr. Douglas Blake Deputy Director, AFRL, USA. The inauguration was held at SR Valluri Auditorium in NAL. Mr. Shyam Chetty, Co-ordinator of the Workshop initiated the inaugural proceedings with a brief overview of the objectives of the Workshop. The main objective of this workshop was to identify core technology areas of common interest related to MAV Aerodynamics, Structures, Control, Guidance and Navigation. Dr. AR Upadhya, Director, NAL delivered the Welcome address. Mr. PS Krishnan, Director, ADE gave a perspective on MAVs and the activities being pursued at ADE. Dr. Douglas Blake, Deputy Director, AFRL released a Souvenir containing the abstracts of the presentations to be made in the technical sessions. In his Inaugural address, he covered the strategic vision of AFRL and the challenges in development of autonomous system technologies for MAVs. He indicated that by 2015, AFRL would be able to demonstrate a biomimetic bird-sized UAV platform with the capability of semi autonomous operations and hoped to design and autonomously fly a bee size MAV by 2030. The keynote address was delivered by Prof. Dattaguru, IISc who gave a perspective of R&D activities in the field of MAVs being pursued at different academic institutions in India. The inaugural session was followed by paper presentations spread over three technical sessions. Lt. Gen Sundaram presented an overview of the MAV activities in India. Lt. Col. John Seo, Technical Director, AOARD, USA and Mr. CU Hari Director, Directorate of Aeronautics, DRDO, New Delhi presented the role of AOARD and AR& DB in promoting research activities in the area of MAVs. Dr. Siva S. Banda from AFRL, and Prof. Jonathan How from MIT then presented very interesting talks on the autonomous MAV flight research being carried out in their institutions. The papers presented in the subsequent technical sessions covered a variety of topics dealing with Unsteady Aerodynamics, flapping wing MAVs, flight dynamics, guidance, navigation and flight control, smart materials, active flow control techniques and CFD applications for MAVs by Scientists from both US and India. The technical sessions on the second day were held at ADE. The focus this time was on vision based surveillance, visual sensing and processing for navigation and control and efficient storage of optic flow data for vision sensors. Papers on task allocation, search strategies and consensus mechanisms for MAV swarms and group coordination tactics were also presented. This was followed by round table discussions in the areas of MAV aerodynamics, controls and structures. The main aim of the workshop and the final round of discussions was to exchange ideas and arrive at a roadmap for future joint collaborative research in this strategic area with special emphasis on autonomous flapping wing and bio-inspired flight. More than 150 delegates from various R&D organizations, private industry and academic institutions in India participated in the Workshop.