With Foreign Help, Troubled Saras Crawling Back To Life


With expert consultancies from Italy's Piaggio Aero and Russia's Myasischev Experimental Design Bureau (MDB), India's Saras light transport aircraft programme, plagued by development hurdles and a tragic crash of its second prototype, will finally get back to flight testing next year. As part of a comprehensive recovery programme following the crippling crash on March 6 last year, the first Saras prototype PT-1 is being converted into a PT-2+ standard, and programme is also attempting to finish fabrication of two production standard aircraft (PSA) to join the flight test routine. The consultancies with Piaggio and MDB were necessary after India's civil aviation authority concluded that fundamental design flaws had caused [PDF] last year's crash. The two companies are helping the Saras team completely redesign the aircraft's nacelles.

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