News and Events, NAL, Bangalore

As far as this week’s SARAS round up is concerned, the ‘power on checks’ of all the electrical wiring leading to cockpit equipping have been completed. The preliminary DGCA inspection of the loom installations have also taken place.

The inspection on critical mechanical systems like the Flight Control Systems (FCS), hydraulics, power plant and the fuel system is through. Tuning up of FCS is being carried out.

As the New Year dawns and we begin earnestly penning our resolutions, tighter resolutions are being framed to herald the New Year at the hangar. A ‘fully equipped cockpit’ and timely initiation of ‘functional tests’ are the immediate targets.

We sign off this week’s round-up with a ‘Happy and Prosperous New Year Wishes to all our readers’.

As a prelude to the International Conference on Trends in Product Life-Cycle Modeling, Simulation and Synthesis (PLMSS) during 18-20 December 2006 in IISc, Bangalore, NAL, ADA and HAL jointly organised a three-day short course on Aircraft Conceptual Design by Dr Daniel P Raymer, President, Conceptual Research Corporation, USA during 14-16 December 2006 at S R Valluri Auditorium, NAL. This course focused mainly on aircraft design to help the aeronautical community in bringing out new ideas in the ongoing design activities and in the development of next generation aircrafts.

Dr Daniel P Raymer is a recognised expert in the areas of aerospace vehicle design and configuration layout, CAD methodologies and design education. Dr Raymer is the author of the best-selling textbook Aircraft Design A Conceptual Approach and is the recipient of Rockwell Engineer of the Year and the AIAA Summerfield Book Awards.

The aircraft design course by Dr Raymer consisted of both analytical and design layout skills required for the initial design of new aircraft concepts and emphasizes practical aircraft design including configuration layout development and design "rules of thumb" as well as the analytical tasks of design such as aerodynamic analysis and vehicle sizing. The course also included other topics of special interest such as stealth design, VSTOL, helicopter design, design optimisation and carpet plotting, and use of computers and CAD in conceptual design.

Over 100 participants from the various IITs’, Universities and Defence Laboratories from all over the country participated in the three-day workshop.

Feedback from participants showed that the course was very useful for persons in the design arena.

The Joint CSIR-UGC JRF Examination Test is being held on 24 December 2006. Dr Ranjan Moodithaya, Head, KTMD is the Chief Co-ordinator of Exams for the Bangalore centre. Dr Ranjan will be supported by over 200 NAL staff. This examination is held twice in a year and NAL has very successfully discharged this activity for more than two decades now.

NAL is getting ready for re-certification audit - ISO 9001:2000 QMS. The audit is scheduled for 8-10 January 2007. The auditors from Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance (LRQA) will carry out the audit for all the division/sections/units of NAL.

This weeks’ activities are focused on powering the aircraft. All tests on the electrical wiring have been completed. The power on checks are in progress to all the distribution points in the aircraft.

This is a major milestone towards commencement of functional checks on all the mechanical and electrical systems on the aircraft.

Getting a good digital telephoto shot of these long, extremely reliable and rugged AC duct pipes from the rear end of the aircraft, I realize that days and months have passed since work began on the SARAS PT II.

As I leave the hangar and make my way back through the busy streets of Bangalore, it’s clear that the festive mood is on and in full swing. Colourful stars prominently adorn the house tops symbolizing high hopes and ideals, a hope for good fortune and to reach above oneself.

Our hopes and ambitions are also running high as the ‘Light at the end of the tunnel’ is just round the corner.

R Guruprasad with Suju thomas.

SARAS Picture Gallery

The NAL team emerged as the champions

in the 38th Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Memorial Tournament (SSBMT) in the indoor finals held at CRRI, New Delhi during 1-3 December 2006.

Mr P S R Murthy, Hindi Officer and Mr V Srinivas, ACD received

the winners trophy for Carrom in the team event category.

Ms Preme of ALD was declared winner (shuttle badminton and table tennis) in the ladies individual event category. And in the team event category, Ms Preme, Ms S C Uma, ADK and Ms Savithry J, ADKreceived the winners trophy (shuttle badminton).

This week's activity focuses on important 'insulation resistance tests', more popularly called the 'Megger Tests' which are currently in progress on SARAS. With the electrical looms in place, properly routed and labeled, these tests are an absolute DGCA requirement for aircraft readiness.

Essentially, these 'Megger Tests' comprise of megohm meters that are scaled to read in megohms or millions of ohms. The main objective is to measure the total resistance between any two points that are separated by insulation. These tests are carried out to find out the effectiveness of the insulation.

The ALD and C-CADD colleagues deserve our warm appreciation in completing all the avionics and electrical requirements of the SARAS aircraft in record time.

Other significant progress this week points to ECS equipping in the rear fuselage where the installation of ECS pack, ground cooling fan and other related duct assemblies have been completed.

Dr Sunil Kumar Chakrabartty (SKC) belongs so much to our CTFD division that it is something impossible for all of us to accept that our SKC – a source of great inspiration and energy for our division will stop coming to office from 1 December. SKC always meant much more to all of us than his mere physical presence. He is really the Big C of our CFD community – Chakrabartty, the Championof CFD. Regarding scientific achievements, this friend of ours has undoubtedly reached the peak at both national and international level today. His long list of research publications in reputed peer reviewed journals and his recent monograph on CFD, of course, speak volumes of his great achievements in a long innings of more than three decades. SKC just loves to meet challenges and eventually to go beyond them. The maiden challenge of his professional career was the computation of complex transonic flow and that too using the grossly inadequate computing facilities in 1970’s when a term CFD was not in use. His in-depth knowledge of applied mathematics fused with his untiring efforts to understand the typical aerodynamics problems, his enormous energy to inspire the young scientists around him for the last two decades and finally his great love and passion for CFD gave birth to the JUMBO and JUEL series of Navier Stokes and Euler codes in our division for analysis of aircraft aerodynamics. The aerospace community of the country are proud of our colleague SKC and his brain-child - the JUMBO code used extensively today.

SKC is always our true friend in need. In any problem whatsoever, he is the first person to stand beside as a Big Brother. Amongst his friends, he enjoys the reputation of being straight-forward nature. He always calls a spade a spade. We all will really miss his exciting high decibel remarks and cross-arguments in our seminars. It takes a while for one to understand this highly emotional and sensitive man of large heart, SKC. The CFD community of the country will forever remember the enormous contribution of our SKC and his charismatic personality. We all wish SKC, his wife and their loving son Subrata and daughter Shreya, a very happy, healthy and peaceful life for many more years to come.

A high level Chinese Aeronautical Establishment (CAE) delegation led by Prof Yang Yuzhong, Honorary President, CAE, visited NAL between 5-8 December 2006. The team members included Prof Zhang Juen, Executive Vice President, Prof Zhou Jun, Vice President, Prof Zhao Limin, Asst. Professor, and Ms Sun Jian, Project Manager. They had a fruitful discussion and visits at NAL.

Significant Progress on Electrical Looming

A thorough planning of the electrical system is absolutely essential in an aircraft development programme. You will need to route the electrical wiring, determine the best location for your battery, think about where to put a bus bar, and so forth during the initial aircraft integration stage itself.

At the hangar, this week's progress focuses on the electrical and avionics system loom installations. An interesting activity that is in operation points to the 'loom continuity checks'. These 'continuity checks', check the electrical resistance between the contacts within the jack and a mating plug and there should not be any resistance measured which indicates that the continuity is good. This test needs to be conducted using a mating plug that is in a new condition. The mating plug terminals should be as clean as possible, and show no signs of wear, tarnishing, or other deterioration of condition.

Mr Pandurangan, Quality Control Manager, is of the opinion that 'It is imperative that each and every bunch of loom terminating at the cockpit (which in turn contain numerous strands of wires), need to be thoroughly checked to ensure that all vital electrical signals are coming through nice and clear and without any interference'. Grouping the different bunch of looms is an extremely important aircraft safety exercise that needs to be judiciously carried out. Here, it may be apt to recall Ben Sclair (aviation fuels expert), that 'electricity has its own place in this world, but one place that it shouldn't be is near the fuel filler neck'.

At another corner of the hangar, it is seen that the ejector system pressure test fixture has been completed and pressure tests up to 205 psi are being planned. On the aircraft side, the ventral fin has been neatly mounted. At the far end of the HANSA hangar, structural test on the stub wing assembly is through and is awaiting final clearance from the DGCA before its removal from the jig.

As I begin packing my camera kit, the picture of so many wires sprawled around the aircraft looms large before me. Would I be right in saying, 'It's much better to find a short-circuit now before it finds you'?

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