News and Events, NAL, Bangalore

Dr S Viswanath has made an outstanding contribution to the design and development of aerospace structures and their analysis. After joining NAL in the year 1973, he made his initial contributions in the area of finite element theory, fracture mechanics and composite structures. During this period, he made significant contributions to the development of HJT-16, canopy stress analysis of HF-24 and static analysis of rotodomed aircraft. Subsequently, he took up the responsibility for the structural design, analysis and certification of the HANSA-3 aircraft and played a leading role in the structural weight optimisation of this aircraft to satisfy the JAR-VLA requirements.

As Head of Structural Analysis and Design Group at NAL, he was responsible for several major projects which included analysis of LCA components, DWR sandwich radomes, ceramic radomes for high temperature applications and FRP nose radomes for Jaguar aircraft. He also carried out analysis of flexible structures like aerostats of various sizes. In the year 2002, Dr. Viswanath took over as the Head of Structures Division at NAL and has contributed significantly to vibration, aeroelasticity and smart structural related developments. He has been responsible for setting up several vibration test facilities in NAL, the notable among them being a 132 channel data acquisition system for MIMO Ground Vibration Testing of aircraft and a 3.5 tonne shaker for Dynamic Qualification of components. He also lead a team that has very efficiently carried out the GVT of HANSA-3 and SARAS prototype aircraft to enable flight clearance from the point of view of aircraft flutter. During his tenure, three major aeroelastic programmes were successfully completed viz., GSLV M3 buffet studies, SARAS T-tail aeroelastic model studies and active flutter control model in flying PZT actuators. As Chairman of the Task Force on SARAS structural testing, he has monitored various test plans, tests and analysis of structural components . He has now initiated two major aerospace projects in the Structures Division on Structural and Aerothermal analysis of re-entry Launch Vehicle (VSSC) and Inflight vibration measurements and thermal mapping of a fighter aircraft (CEMILAC/ IAF).

Dr. S. Viswanath graduated from the University of Mysore in Mechanical Engineering and subsequently completed M.Tech from IIT, Madras. He later obtained his Ph.D in aeronautical engineering from IISc, Bangalore. He has more than 130 publications in various journals, conferences , seminars and as technical documents. He is a Fellow of the Aeronautical Society of India, Life Member of ISAMPE and Member of the Computer Society of India. He received Dr. Roy Biren award from the Aeronautical Society of India in the year 2000 for his outstanding contribution to the design and certification of the all composite HANSA-3 aircraft. He is a distinguished visiting Professor of VTU, awarded by AICTE.

Mr R K Rao

Mr R K Rao has assumed charge as Controller of Stores and Purchase in National Aerospace Laboratories on 13 June 2007 in place of Mr D Chengaiah who has been transferred to Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology Hyderabad.

Mr S Nagaraj joined NAL in 1966 in the erstwhile Mathematical Sciences Division. He had the privilege of working with NAL’s first computer “Ferranti SIRIUS”. He started his career by writing programs in AUTOCODE and FORTRAN for scientific applications. In the 80’s NAL acquired the first major main frame system SPERRY 1100 system and Mr Nagaraj was made the System Administrator.

For a shortwhile he worked in the Inter Process Communication for flight simulation software at FMCD. Later he moved to CSS where the campus network expansion using FDDI was in progress. At CSS he was instrumental in setting up and maintaining all servers like Proxy, SMTP, mail servers, web mail and web servers using LINUX operating system, Antivirus packages for gateway and desktop.. His interaction with users of different divisions was highly appreciated and he was given the NAL award for Technical Support. He guided a large number of B.E and MCA students in their project work.

July 2006 saw the formation of CNSU for maintenance and expansion of all Network Related issues and problems. He was made the Network Administrator and Dy.Head, CNSU . Here he co-ordinated successfully in installing the State of the art United Threat Management Appliance box. This appliance is operational since 3 months successfully.

Mr Nagaraj superanuuated on 30 June 2007, we wish him a very happy and peaceful retired life.

Mr M Ramaiah, Assistant (S & P) Grade I retired on superannuation on 30 June 2007. He joined NAL in 1977. As stores supervisor he worked at receipt wing, coordinating with the suppliers, transporters, indentors and also purchase sections. He managed the task, of receipt of the items like material handling, handing over DD to suppliers, preparation of inspection reports and obtaining issue slip etc., very efficiently. In fact, he functioned as an ideal interface between the actual buyer and the seller. He carried out his day to day activities with utmost integrity and devotion. He maintained a cordial relation with all user’s divisions and was highly appreciated by one and all.

Siba Prasad Hota

The Twenty first AGM of Indian Society for Advancement of Materials and Process Engineering (ISAMPE) was held in NAL on 22.6.07. Dr. Prahlada, Distinguished Scientist and CC R&D (SI) was the Chief Guest. In his keynote address, Dr. Prahlada focused on the changes that the materials are playing in various areas like aerospace, health care, textiles etc. He felt that the scientific community should also look into the issue of Biodegradability of composites, as this is a huge problem today. He also felt that Indian scientists should go about patenting with more vigor and zeal.

As is the tradition, in memory of Late Secretary Vijay Zaveri, a memorial lecture is held during every AGM. Dr. Arvind Pandalai, Chairman and MD State Trading Corporation of India, delivered the Vijay Zaveri lecture. He elaborated on the growth of composites over the last few decades and how every area from Railways, automotives, infrastructure and aerospace was increasingly using composites. He brought out that the global aerospace community would spend 57 billion dollars from 2007-26. As part of the offset programme, he felt that the there is great opportunity that the composite community (both R&D and Private Industry) could take advantage of. The Inaugural function concluded with the distribution of the awards.Following the inaugural programme, a technical session with the theme ‘Engineering Thermoplastic Composites’ was held. Dr. Sanjay Charati from GE (India) gave a talk on `Trends in Engineering Thermoplastic Composites’. He focused on the key technology developments, applications and market trends in the area of engineering thermoplastic composites, functional composites, hybrid composites and natural fibre based composites.

The second talk was delivered by Dr. Soumendra K. Basu, GM (India) on ‘Bioplastics and Biocomposites in automotive Industry”. He spoke on the work going on in the area of bioplastics, biofibres and biocomposites. He highlighted the advantages of the state of the art in biomaterials over traditional petroleum plastics and their composites. He concluded by stating India being rich in Biomaterials, has a great opportunity to become a global leader in this field.

Dr Ramesh Sundaram

Mr M S Chidananda, Sc G has been appointed Head, Centre for Civil Aircraft Design and Development (C-CADD) and Programme Director, Civil Aviation Programme with effect from 1 July 2007. He succeeds Dr K Yegna Narayan who retires on 30 June 2007. Dr H N V Dutt is appointed as Joint Head and Mr A R Bhaskaran as Deputy Head.Ms Padma Madhuranath, Sc G will take over as Head, Flight Mechancis and Control Division, NAL with effect from 1 August 2007. She will succeed Dr J R Raol who will retire on 31 July 2007.

Mr D V Venkatasubramanyam, Sc G will take over as Head, Structures from 1 July 2007. He succeeds Dr S Viswanath who retires on 30 June 2007. Dr Sridharmurthy is appointed as Joint Head.

The following is the organization structure of Knowledge and Technology Management Division, KTMD.Head Dr Ranjan Moodithaya
Jt Head Dr M N Sathyanarayana
Group Leaders

Ms Gomathy Sankaran — Public Relations & Resources Management
Mr Raghavendra V Maralihalli — Project and Business Management
Mr C V Giri Raj — Media and Publicity Management
Ms Latha K — Management Information Systems
Dr Rema Abraham Thomas — RAB Southern Cell.

Twenty first AGM of Indian Society for Advancement of Materials and Process Engineering

The twenty first annual general meeting of Indian Society for Advancement of Materials and Process Engineering (ISAMPE) was held on 22 June 2007 at the S R Valluri auditorium, NAL. Dr Prahlada, Distinguished Scientist & CC R &D (SI) delivered the keynote address and graced the occasion as the chief guest. Dr J J Isaac Head, Propulsion and Wind Energy Division, NAL released the souvenier. Dr Aravind Pandalai, Chairman and Managing Director, The State Trading Corporation of India Ltd., delivered the Sixteenth Vijay Zaveri Memorial Lecture. Dr P D Mangalgiri, President, ISAMPE presided over the function.

Mr C Tejas, son of Dr C Divakar, Scientist, Material Science Division who is in the final year BE in BMS College of Engineering has been selected by Indian National Academy of Engineering for a fellowship. He will be mentoring under Dr M Subba Rao, Head, ACD. The internship is for a period of two months along with a stipend of Rs.6000 per month. Tejas has also been offered an IASc-INSA-NASI Summer Fellowship for two months under Professor Vikram Jayaram, Department of Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

A team of engineers from BAeHAL Software Ltd., Bangalore visited NAL on 21 June 2007. The team was welcomed by Dr M N Sathyanarayana, Jt. Head, KTMD. Later the team visited the various facilities of NAL.

A one day symposium on Aircraft Design was organized on 14 June 2007 at the S R Valluri Auditorium to honour Dr K Yegna Narayan, Programme Director, Civil Aviation Programme(PGD,CAP), Dr S Viswa-nath, Head, structures Division and Mr R Rangarajan, Deputy Head, C-CADD and Project Director HANSA. The symposium concentrated on the various aspects related to aircraft design and development, both civil and other types.Dr A R Upadhya, Director NAL formally welcomed the gathering. In his address Dr A R Upadhya mentioned that the civil aviation programme was started in NAL in a very small way in the 80's with LCRA under Prof R Narasimha and late Prof R B Damania . Today NAL has accomplished the mission of having HANSA 3 certified by DGCA, SARAS PT1 and PT2 flying. He expressed his happiness to have seen HANAS 3 participate at the Australian International Air Show 2007. This symposium provides an opportunity to all our scientists in NAL to interact with those from outside working on other aircraft development programmes. Prof R Nara-simha , FRS, Chairman, EMU, JNCAR and former Director NAL was introduced as the doyen of Aeronautics.Prof Narasimha formally lit the ceremonial lamp and inaugurated the symposium. In his address he mentioned, the seeds of the dream for the civil aviation programme was grown and nurtured at NAL by Dr K Yegna Narayan and his colleagues. He also mentioned that civil aviation is for the consumer and the civil aeronautics is for R&D. He expressed his gratitude to these three scientists Dr K Yegna Narayan, Dr S Viswanath and Mr Rangarajan who are being honoured today have shown outstanding commitment to the idea that NAL should play a leading role in establishing a civil aircraft design and development capability in the country. Prof R Narasimha released the Proceedings of the Symposium and said C-CADD will grow to give India an international presence in the world of civil aeronautics.The keynote address was delivered by Dr K Yegna Narayan on Design issues in NAL's Civil Aircraft Programmes. He mentioned that he and Prof Narasimha shared a typical guru-shishya relationship since 1967. He gave an insight into solved and unsolved problems of civil aviation programme at NAL. The LCRA experience gave NAL enormous confidence in undertaking design and development of composite aircraft. He recounted the NALLA experiment, which had been abandoned. Later NAL's HANSA got successfully certified by DGCA in 2000. He spoke about salient features of HANSA, SARAS PT1 and PT2 and some major technology design issues like -Effect of propeller slip stream on drag, nacelle design, flap operating mechanics and weight reduction. He further said that NAL has forged first public private partnership in aircraft design and development in India with tie-ups with Mahindra Plexion Technologies ltd, in the 4-5 seater General Aviation Aircraft development currently underway at C-CADD. He projected NAL's much more ambitious civil aircraft project in development of a state of the art 70 seater Regional transport Aircraft. He finally said NAL has traveled a long way from LCRA to SARAS and now NAL should have concrete plans for the future . Prof Narasimha while presenting a memento to Dr K Yegna Narayan proudly proclaimed he is very proud to have a shishya like Dr K Yegna Narayan.Mr M S Chidananda Joint Head, C-CADD proposed the vote of thanks.

The symposium was followed by a formal felicitation function organized in the evening to honour the three distinguished superannuating scientists from service.

44th Research Council (NAL's Apex body) meeting was held on 15 June 2007 at Director's Conference Hall. The Council meeting was chaired by Dr G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, Space Commission and Secretary, Dept. of Space. Prof B N Raghunandan, Chairman, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Prof Job Kurien, Head, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering, IIT Chennai, Prof K Sudhakar, Professor and Head, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering, IIT, Mumbai, Mr T Mohan Rao, Director, GTRE, Dr H S Maiti, Director, CGCRI, Kolkata, Dr Gopal P Sinha, Director, CMERI, Durgapur attended the RC meeting in addition to the Director and Heads of Division of NAL.

Under the bilateral cooperation between NAL and CAE (Chinese Aeronautical Establishment) in civil aeronautics, a team of two scientists lead by Prof. Yi Xiaosu, Director of S&T Committee, National Key Lab of Advanced Composites (LAC, BIAM-Beijing Institute of Aeronautical Materials) visited NAL during 5-7 June 2007. An overview of the BIAM's activities was presented by Prof. Yi. Dr. Tong Jianfeng, Sr. Engr. (LAC, BIAM) presented the work on structural ceramics and ceramics for (Intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells (ITSOFC). Presentations were also made by scientists of Materials Science Division, on the on-going projects and one new proposal for BIAM in the area of materials. Subsequently, the CAE delegation visited SARAS hanger and other divisions. The BIAM members met senior scientists of Advance Composite Division and Materials Science Division and had very useful discussions on projects for bilateral cooperation between BIAM and NAL.

A team from M/s Bombardier Aerospace, Montreal, Canada visited NAL on 7 June 2007 to discuss possible co-operation in technology development projects relating to aircraft components. The team had discussions with Director and senior scientists and later visited the Advanced Composites Division and Structural Integrity Division.

An Israel delegation visited NAL on the 31 May 2007. The teams from NAL and Israel made brief presentations and had detailed discussions. Subsequent to the discussions, the two teams felt it necessary to have a MoU/NDA (between NAL and DDR&D, Israel ) to have collaborative work. The areas identified were advanced ceramic radome materials, thermoelectric materials and high strain materials for joint co-operation.

A seven member team from the Dow Chemicals International Private Ltd., USA visited NAL on 31 May 2007. A brief introduction about NAL's activities was presented to the delegation. In the course of discussion the delegation evinced interest in collaborating with NAL in the areas of composites and FRP products.

Mr G Gururaja, NAL, Bangalore has yet again developed a software to generate the newly introduced ITR-1 FORM. This software is accessible on NAL's Intranet nalme for all NAL employees. We appreciate Mr Gururaja's concern for colleagues and his services to NAL staff.

Master Abhijith R Kashyap son of Dr T G Ramesh, Head, Material Science Division has obtained 98 in physics, 95 in chemistry, 89 in maths and 80 in biology in the PUC 2007 examinations. He has secured the 66th state rank in the AIEEE 2007.In the 2007 Senior School Certificate Examination(SCE) class XII, A Prem Kumar, son of Mr Y Asokan, KTMD obtained 93 in physics, 91 in mathematics, 92 in chemistry and 91 in computer science. Master Prem Kumar has also qualified for counselling for admission to IIT with an all India rank of sc121.Master R Vignesh son of Mr T Ramakrishna, Material Science Division again from the 2007 SCE class XII examination has also done equally well. He has obtained 94 in physics, 99 in mathematics, 94 in chemistry and 85 in computer science. Master Vignesh has secured the 102 state rank in the AIEEE 2007.

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