It’s Official: India’s Regional Jet To Have Turboprop & Turbofan Variants

It’s official. As revealed a couple of weeks ago here, India’s National Aerospace Laboratory (NAL) will develop the Indian Regional Transport Aircraft (IRTA), designated RTA-70 regional jet, not just as a twin turboprop as earlier believed but a common platform with two variants — a twin turboprop and a twin turbofan. In addition, both variants will also have stretched versions designated RTA-90. The slides above are a from presentation made by NAL Director Dr AR Upadhya. With the Saras programme in one right mess, it seems a little odd that NAL is proceeding quite rapidly on the RTA programme. Even the national auditor had suggested that NAL drop plans of initiating the project without first getting its house in order as far as the Saras was concerned. It said, “Keeping in view the problems faced by NAL in HANSA and SARAS, projects relating to marketing of the aircrafts, difficulties in finding an industrial partner and lack of specialised manpower, NAL may review initiation of the new project for development of a 70 seater aircraft.” And this was before the Saras crash of March 2009.

16 thoughts on “It’s Official: India’s Regional Jet To Have Turboprop & Turbofan Variants”

  1. HAL/ADA seem to be coming up with new proposals for UAVs, planes, heli's etc etc everyday .. do they have the resources to deliver? I hope so.. I wouldnt want any project in the defence sector, all of which are critical, to be delayed over and over .. Then in 2050 we will be flight testing these for another 10 years after which the IAF will say they are out of date.

    DRDO must increase resources and allow for private participation in its projects. It'll make things move faster.

  2. Those are some reallllllly big numbers to live upto….and if she(they 🙂 ) do…expect to seem em everywhere!!!

  3. This is pre-posterous to say the least. We have here an organization (NAL) which could not deliver a working prototype of a propeller driven plane in 20 years, the nation is being sold another pipe dream to be funded by the tax-payer's money for another 40 years.

    Why doesn't the Govt privatize all these useless bodies-NAL, HAL, LRDE, GTRE? When these cheesy babus come under the whip, results will follow.

    God bless India.

  4. Dear Mr. Arror,
    Don't remove my comment. I am not writing nonsense. The way ADA, HAL and NAL are releasing powerpoint presentation back-to-back every day illustrates a perfect telugu saying in Andhra.

    "uTTi ki egaralenamma swargaaniki egurutundaTa"

    Meaning – The one who cannot hit handi, is aiming to reach swarglok.

    How can it be possible. Saras is a big big flop and it killed many people.

    From where the turbo-prop and jet engines are coming for these new machines. For sure this project looks like a dream of a junior scientist in NAL.

    The best thing NAL,HAL and ADA should do is:

    1. Send Tejas to IAF and focus on N-LCA.
    2. Give Indians Kaveri-engine. That will justify our taxes.

    Utti = Handis that are hanged up-high to be broken during janmashtami festival (mumbaikars know that)

  5. the terminator

    The baboos running the NAL are daydreamers who come up with fantastic projects when they can't even complete and deliver the ones in hand. These clowns should take due diligence about their true capabilities before embarking on other projects.

    What have they done about SARAS? Their indifference,, irresponsiblity and incompetence led to the death of two test pilots. Have they come clean about that avoidable mishap? Was anyone at NAL made an example of for that unwarranted tragedy?

    Now they are coming up with newer aircrafts when the country is still struggling with other projects involving aircrafts.

    Why can't these over zealous baboos come up with a decent, workable trainer aircraft for the IAF?

    The clowns at NAL should learn to walk before they can run.

  6. NAL like any other govt lab is not concerned with success or failure of their projects or even their commercial viability. They just need work to justify and expand their budgetary allocation which is their only source of revenue.

  7. What difference is there between RTA-90 and HAL MRTA? What is the need to develop two similar jets? Maybe NAL is worried about industry taking up R&D projects.

  8. SARAS ko dekhe ho gaye Baras!

    RTA ? God knows.

    Most of these organisations seem to be the same – bombastic announcements followed by zzzzzzzzzzz.

  9. Guys, look at this..
    http://www.brahmand.com/news/Two-Global-Hawk-UAVs-to-conduct-aerial-refueling/4330/1/10.html

    while the US is developing more and more sophisticated technologies, we cant even seem to develop a simple piston engine. I believe we cant even make gear boxes for cars. These PSUs are sloppy and don't seem to have an incentive to beat deadlines.

    We really need to bring in private sector and the academia. In the US and UK, universities develop technologies/methodologies through university projects like PhDs and even MSc's. Why doesnt our govt do anything like this? Instead it is relying on importing everything and trying to develop outdated stuff.

    Reporters like yourself, Shiv, must push the govt to bring in a lot of companies from the private sector. By providing them with grants, incentives etc etc. Our govt seems to be saying they want private sector participation but isn't providing the backing for it.

    Jai Hind

  10. This a a very good news. I hope this does for commercial aviation what LCA did for military aviation… lay the grownd work for future developments. One question for the experts. The turbo prop has lower TO/Landing performance. Could this be due to that fact that props are pushing the air above and below the wing giving it some air speed even when the grownd speed is 0? This is the only explanation I could come-up with, let me know if I am thinking in the correct direction. Thank you.

  11. Yes bring in the pvt companies….they have done a lot of research n made….wait…they havent…..they have done excellent manufacturing….give them that job!!!

  12. Look at any nation that is pioneer in aviation today and see how many failures they have seen before they got to stand on their feet.

    As for those talking about private companies making them, who has ever stopped them from making an aircraft all these years ????? And still they haven't made one? Why?

  13. [email protected]

    Pvt companies dont have the incentives. You cant just expect someone to start a company and build engines with no history whatsoever.

    The govt must provide grants, awards, seed money, transfer of tech from GTRE etc to kickstart the industry.

    The pvt industry is interested in profit only, not doing "good" for the nation. But the govt can hitch on its back by providing it with profits.

    Once the companies have a solid foundation, the govt can sit back and demand better tech. This is what happens in the west.

  14. Hey anon 3.29..

    Are you stupid? Pvt companies only invest in what they are confident in as well as know they can make a profit from.

    No Indian company knows a great deal about engines and their technology. There is a lot of profit to be made from it but you cant exactly go out and buy the tech from elsewhere. Maybe you think you can walk into Rolls-Royce and ask to purchase the blue prints for the latest trent-1000 engine. Good luck with that.

    So the govt must step in and pay for R&D, provide schematics of whatever has already been developed and so on.

    Maybe you are used to living in a communist country, but this is how it works in capitalist countries.

    So before you come up with daft questions and reasons, learn about the sector first.

  15. @anon 3.29

    Here is an example of how it works in the USA. Although this has nothing to do with aviation, the concept is similar. You should look it up before saying daft things like "why hasnt any private company made an aircraft".

    http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/10/71898

    This is the part I would like to highlight: "To achieve this end, Darpa gave millions to research companies like LexCarb and Sciperio to create a contraption that could capture water in the Mesopotamian desert." Incase you don't know, DARPA is the american equivalent of DRDO.

    So as you see, even in the mighty US of A, the govt funds research. This must happen in india as well if we are to become self sufficient in an efficient way. Relying on PSUs alone will get us nowhere. Pvt companies want to make profits, so they want to keep upgrading tech and produce new products to make more money. A PSU doesn't rely on producing new products to make money because the govt guarantees it its income.

    So next time, before you say stupid things like "As for those talking about private companies making them, who has ever stopped them from making an aircraft all these years ????? And still they haven't made one? Why?". READ.. else you will always be a MORON.

  16. The Gov over estimated the talent of defence PSU"s and the result is that the indigenous defence products either lack quality or are not timely delivered(which highly decreases the value of product).Now gov should make immediate moves towards greater involvement of private sectors(specially in aerospace) with transparency in procurement policy.Mahendra aerospace,TATA,L&T and other companies with similar capabilities should be provided enough opportunities and promise of firm orders so that they can develop what indian armed forces always dreamt of.

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