Mahindra Aerospace to launch first small aircraft in India in 2 years

SajeevJino

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Mahindra Aerospace to launch first small aircraft in India in 2 years


Mahindra Aerospace, the aircraft and components manufacturing arm of Mahindra group, will start producing the first eight-seater aircraft in India in the next two years.



"You can expect that within a time-frame of two years, we will have a full-fledged eight-seater aircraft being manufactured in India," said Hemant Luthra, President of Mahindra Systech -- of which Mahindra Aerospace is a part, during the inauguration of its new aerostructure manufacturing facility here.

The company presently manufactures eight-seater -- GA8 utility aircraft,
in its Australia-based companies Aerostaff and GrippsAero which it acquired in 2010 to get into the aviation sector.

It has so far exported from Australia around 250 planes, which are used for tourism, humanitarian aid, adventure sports and other activities in the US, Canada, Europe and other countries.

Mahindra is also producing 10-seater GA10, which is under certification process and is likely to available for commercial operations by 2014. The company is working on development of 18-seater GA 18.

Inaugurating the facility, Mahindra Group CMD Anand Mahindra said he aims to turn India from "a global consumer in aviation sector to global producer" and the manufacturing facility was an attempt make India's entry into the global aerospace industry and "leave a footprint in global aerostructure supply chain".

"It is the first aerostructure facility (in private sector) in India. Our utility aircraft are capable of landing in rugged terrains where no one has reached. It will be like our Mahindra jeep, which used to tread rugged terrain without roads and where no other vehicle used to go," Mahindra said.

There was immense opportunity for the aircraft business in India as around 100 million pilgrims, 100 million holiday goers and businessmen could benefit with small aircraft, which shows the immense potential for the aircraft, Luthra said.

Elaborating the future plans, he said the Rs 150 crore plant would be a service provider for multiple original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and has received RFQ (Request for Quote)from them. "We would be like to progress from build-to-print towards design-to-delivery offerings in the future."

Mahindra Aerospace has collaborated with Spanish aerostructure manufacturing company Aernnova Group to get the stringent certification for export to European countries and also get into the defence sector.

Government is looking for components for its fighter aircraft, helicopters and other defence aircraft, which is around $20-40 billion proposition, he said, adding that of this, at least 20 per cent should go to local business and "we are looking at that opportunity."

The state-of-the-art 25,000 square metre aerostructures manufacturing facility, has the ability to accurately craft large, complex sheet metal parts using CNC routing (a computer controlled shaping machine), stretch-forming, bladder press, heat treatment and other specialised equipment.

The facility also features a fully-automated surface treatment line, priming and painting capabilities for parts and assemblies and nearly 10,000 square metres of space for the manufacture of major airframe assemblies and sub- assemblies.

With its comprehensive mix of capabilities, the facility is intended to assist OEMs and Tier 1's mitigate concerns on single-point responsibility for cost, schedule and quality of deliverables, Luthra said, adding that the new plant was currently in the process of gaining industry-standard AS9100C and NADCAP accreditations, alongside stringent quality approvals.

"It is also investing in skilled aerospace sheet metal, special processing and assembly workers, and will generate significant employment as operations ramp up over the next five to seven years," Luthra said.


Mahindra Aerospace to launch first small aircraft in India in 2 years - The Economic Times
 

SilentKiller

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Re: Mahindra Aerospace to launch first small aircraft in India in 2 ye

Heard about it way back in Aero show 2011, said same thing that such a plane will be launched in 2 years and even showed a full scale model.
Myself visited the show.
 

Abhijeet Dey

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Re: Mahindra Aerospace to launch first small aircraft in India in 2 ye

Mahindra should build jet engine aircraft & jet engines which will be in huge demand in India in the coming future. Aircraft driven with turboprop engines such as Mahindra's GA-10 are already being built by HAL such as Dornier series.

Even Indian Air Force Base Repair Depots are going to build turboprop aircrafts.
 

jmj_overlord

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Re: Mahindra Aerospace to launch first small aircraft in India in 2 ye

Even Indian Air Force Base Repair Depots are going to build turboprop aircrafts.
are you referring to to the news that IAF is going to build it's own aircrafts like trainers and not just rely on HAL ?
 

DivineHeretic

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Re: Mahindra Aerospace to launch first small aircraft in India in 2 ye

Mahindra should build jet engine aircraft & jet engines which will be in huge demand in India in the coming future. Aircraft driven with turboprop engines such as Mahindra's GA-10 are already being built by HAL such as Dornier series.

Even Indian Air Force Base Repair Depots are going to build turboprop aircrafts.
Its no longer a question of intent, its a question of capability. Its not that Mahindra or TATA or Reliance Aviation or any other corporation would not want to make and sell Jet powered Aircrafts or Jet Engines.

It is that they simply do not have the technical expertise or the experience to undertake such a critical and sophisticated engineering project. Also, there is a definite lack of funds to finance such a large project at the moment.

The corporations are obviously moving to rectify their limitations by either buying out aerospace companies or developing huge aviation research facilities. This is something that must be commended and bodes well for the future.

But the fact remains that the Indian Corporations cannot undertake a $20-30 billion dollar project to develop a jet aircraft and engines without the funding from the Govt. which sadly has only shown interest in funding the Public sector endeavors
 

Abhijeet Dey

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Re: Mahindra Aerospace to launch first small aircraft in India in 2 ye

are you referring to to the news that IAF is going to build it's own aircrafts like trainers and not just rely on HAL ?
Yes. So it would be difficult for Mahindra to sell their aircrafts to Indian customers where IAF is the biggest customer of these type of aircrafts.
 

Abhijeet Dey

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Re: Mahindra Aerospace to launch first small aircraft in India in 2 ye

Its no longer a question of intent, its a question of capability. Its not that Mahindra or TATA or Reliance Aviation or any other corporation would not want to make and sell Jet powered Aircrafts or Jet Engines.

It is that they simply do not have the technical expertise or the experience to undertake such a critical and sophisticated engineering project. Also, there is a definite lack of funds to finance such a large project at the moment.

The corporations are obviously moving to rectify their limitations by either buying out aerospace companies or developing huge aviation research facilities. This is something that must be commended and bodes well for the future.

But the fact remains that the Indian Corporations cannot undertake a $20-30 billion dollar project to develop a jet aircraft and engines without the funding from the Govt. which sadly has only shown interest in funding the Public sector endeavors
Recently former DRDO head VK Saraswat explained that only 5.2% of India's defense budget is allocated for R&D whereas countries such as China spend 15% of their defense budget in R&D. He said even 8 to 9% allocation to R&D would be enough.

LINK:
ajaishukla.blogspot.in/2013/04/drdo-chief-wants-7-of-defence-budget.html

The problem is Indian netas lack strategic thinking. They think what senior military officers say is correct. Plus because we have strategic relationships with countries such as Russia, France, Israel etc their foreign made products are given first preference instead of indigenous development.
 

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