National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Bangalore is a constituent Institution under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India. NAL is a high technology oriented institution concentrating on advanced topics in the aerospace and related disciplines. Originally started as National Aeronautical Laboratory, it was renamed National Aerospace Laboratories to reflect its major involvement in the Indian space programme, its multidisciplinary activities and global positioning.  It is India’s only civilian aerospace laboratory with a high level of competence and the expertise of its scientists is globally acknowledged. 

Additionally, NAL has some sophisticated test facilities which are the best in the country and comparable to those abroad.  1.2 m Trisonic Tunnel Complex, Full Scale Fatigue Facility, Acoustic Test Facility, Engineer-in-Loop Facility, Composite Structure Facilities, Advanced Turbomachinery and Combustion Laboratories, Failure Analysis Laboratory and Electromagnetic Laboratory are among these. All these are manned by specialized teams who operate the facilities, conduct experiments, analyse the data and provide value added inputs to programmes. 

NAL is in its 50th Year of existence and over these years has made significant contributions to a large number of aerospace programmes like (civil and military) aircraft pragrammes, space programme, engine development programmes, defence and strategic programmes of the country and has also contributed vital industrial and societal outputs. NAL has many collaborative projects with reputed international agencies. NAL also develops special expertise in certain fields and has made value added contributions to the areas like aircraft fleet maintenance, life extension, flight safety etc.  NAL has also developed significant technologies related to the field and is an acknowledged centre of excellence in many fields including composite structures, high speed wind tunnel testing, aircraft fatigue and aerospace acoustics, failure analysis and accident investigation.

NAL has successfully executed some innovative research projects in advanced topics of relevance like smart materials, parallel processing, advanced flow diagnostics, airport instrumentation etc.   Its societal contributions include harnessing of solar and wind energy, streamlining vehicles for fuel economy and weather prediction systems.   All these contributions have enabled NAL to consistently generate a substantial part of its budget through projects and be top the generator of external cash flow among CSIR laboratories.

NAL is the harbinger of civil aviation design and development activities in India. NAL designed HANSA trainer aircraft is flying in different flying clubs in India and is all set to reach overseas market.  The light transport aircraft, SARAS, is undergoing flight testing and is designed to meet a critical need in the civil aviation segment.  A 5-seater general aviation aircraft is under design and feasibility studies on a 50-70-90 seater regional transport aircraft are in an advanced stage.

In summary, NAL is a multi-disciplinary, vibrant, high technology organization with an excellent track record and ambitious programmes on hand.