By Anantha Krishnan M
Express News Service
Express News Service
Hyderabad: The Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) continued with their strong pitch to get onboard India's Regional Transport Aircraft (RTA) dream, now taking a new turn with the Aeronautical Society of India promising a vision document for the project. At the just-concluded two-day International Conference & Exhibition on RTA, in Hyderabad, Moshe Zilberman, director, marketing, IAI, said that India should aim for getting the RTA certified within the next five years.
“The rules are different in a civil market. The assembly lines will have to be independent for such a big programme. The Indian government can guarantee orders from operators, Services and private companies. I feel an integrated programme team has to be in place, including those from design, manufacturing, maintenance, civil aviation and operators,” Moshe Zilberman, said.
Dishing out statistics, Moshe said the Indian domestic airliners market is globally the fastest growing and an RTA would give the impetus to the segment. “In the 90-seater segment, there is a potential for 500-1000 aircraft in the next 20 years. An RTA programme will save India around $40 billion,” Moshe claimed.
“The IAI is a recognised member in the exclusive club of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that certify civil aircraft for several years. We have no conflict with India because we are not developing an RTA for us,” Moshe said, while presenting a paper on 'Global Perspective on the Indian Domestics Airliner Market.'
Reacting to IAI's keenness on RTA, a senior official from the Defence Research and Development Organisation said that the final call on the structure and partnership is a matter the Indian government will have to decide. “There were some work done by IAI for the National Civil Aviation Development feasibility study at National Aerospace Laboratories. The interest shown by IAI should be seen as their efforts to get some share of the work from us. We have had ups and downs dealing with IAI in some ongoing projects,” the official, requesting anonymity, said.
“The rules are different in a civil market. The assembly lines will have to be independent for such a big programme. The Indian government can guarantee orders from operators, Services and private companies. I feel an integrated programme team has to be in place, including those from design, manufacturing, maintenance, civil aviation and operators,” Moshe Zilberman, said.
Dishing out statistics, Moshe said the Indian domestic airliners market is globally the fastest growing and an RTA would give the impetus to the segment. “In the 90-seater segment, there is a potential for 500-1000 aircraft in the next 20 years. An RTA programme will save India around $40 billion,” Moshe claimed.
“The IAI is a recognised member in the exclusive club of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that certify civil aircraft for several years. We have no conflict with India because we are not developing an RTA for us,” Moshe said, while presenting a paper on 'Global Perspective on the Indian Domestics Airliner Market.'
Reacting to IAI's keenness on RTA, a senior official from the Defence Research and Development Organisation said that the final call on the structure and partnership is a matter the Indian government will have to decide. “There were some work done by IAI for the National Civil Aviation Development feasibility study at National Aerospace Laboratories. The interest shown by IAI should be seen as their efforts to get some share of the work from us. We have had ups and downs dealing with IAI in some ongoing projects,” the official, requesting anonymity, said.
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