The Aerospace Electronics and Systems Division (ALD) is playing a pivotal role in the country’s civil aircraft sector by carrying out the design and development of Electrical, Avionics, Software and Flight Test Instrumentation systems for CSIR-NAL’s civil aircraft programs, such as HANSA-NG, SARAS PT1N and the SARAS MK-II (currently under development). Its noteworthy achievements include DGCA certified HANSA-NG aircraft, Design, development and flight testing of SARAS PT1-N aircraft and development of several indigenous aircraft sub systems.
ALD has made rapid strides towards self-reliance in aerospace technologies with the realization of ‘Flight operation and Quality Assurance’ (FOQA) software, ARINC 818 FPGA based IP core (CEMILAC certified), Avionics integration test rigs (AITR), model-based software development for several sub systems including stall warning and protection, in-house integrated flight test, telemetry and instrumentation systems etc. Towards indigenous aircraft LRU development, ALD has realized the functional prototype units of Primary Power Distribution System (PPDS), Integrated Avionics Flight Control Computer (IAFCC), LED units for HANSA NG etc. Presently the qualification and certification of these LRUs for integration with SARAS MK-II are in progress.
ALD is also contributing to CSIR-NAL’s UAV’s and High altitude platforms systems (HAPS) programs. Its major contributions to UAV programs is the design and development of light-weight and compact auto-pilot. ALD has designed and developed the energy management and power system and CAN based communication systems for the HAPS sub scale models. These have been successfully flight tested during high altitude and long endurance flight trials. Presently, these works are being scaled up for realizing the full scale HAPS.
In addition to aircraft programs, ALD has contributed significantly to the indigenous development of airport instruments such as runway visibility measuring system (DRISHTI Transmissometer) and Aviation weather observation system (AWOS). Technology transfer of DRISHTI to two industries and its installation of over 175 units across the Indian civil and defence airports along with the partnership of IMD is a commendable achievement. Further augmentation of weather and metrology related measurements and reporting them as per international standards are being pursued currently.
ALD is supporting Indigenous Aerospace grade autoclave and hot bonder technology deployments and market enhancements. ALD is providing electronics engineering support for sensor developments in the lab. ALD is also providing consultancy to IAF in realizing various import substitution LRUs for our aircraft fleet. With the established expertise in developing certifiable software, ALD is supporting Indian railways and other organizations towards software development, verification and validation.
