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Business and General Aviation - India Focus

Posted: 18 Oct 2013 06:35
by ManjaM
It is proposed that this thread cover these areas broadly -

1. Industries involved in in the design and manufacture of business and general aviation crafts. Includes PSUs and Private Industry.
2. Sales of imported Business and General Aviation (B&GA) crafts.
3. Support infrastructure such as hangars, airstrips, MRO centers, trained personnel.
4. Policy decisions affecting the industry.

Business aviation is a subset of General Aviation and is the use of non scheduled aircraft service for business purposes. Currently India does not make any business aircrafts. However, with the move of Indian businesses towards expanding their global footprint, Business aviation is an industry that will move into a space currently monopolised by scheduled operators. This move will be aided by the greatly improved fortunes of large Indian businesses in the last 2 decades. Moreover, almost every single manufacturer of business jets has the capability to modify the aircraft's to perform military roles such as that of Electronic intelligence gathering, Electronic warfare and high speed transport of senior decision makers in the military. This makes the capability to design, manufacture and support Business aircrafts an important part of both the national economy and security setup.

General aviation is essentially hobby aviation for pleasure, casual travel, entertainment, emergency medical services, agriculture, geographic surveys etc. This is the proving grounds where many of the worlds leading aircraft manufacturers have risen from. Sadly this sector is non existent in India. Currently, RajaHamsa Ultralights(http://www.x-air.in/) is the only Private sector company that makes aircrafts of any kind that are certified and flying. Mahindra Aerospace has had the first flight of their NM5 aircraft (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAL_NM5) but it has since dropped out of the news and no new flights have happened that I am aware of. OF course we have the PSU behemoths that are capable of making B&GA aircrafts, but they have their own defense related priorities. In contrast here is a wiki list of manufacturers in USA - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:A ... ted_States .

Unless there are Indian designed and made products that are capable of challenging US products in USA, I do not believe that it is economically viable for a manufacturer to survive by only selling in the Indian sector. However, I could be wrong and the experience of startups such as ICON Aircrafts based in California, USA opens our eyes to the profits to be reaped by designing a product keeping the customer in mind. ICON aircrafts have a single aircraft in the Light Sport Category which has currently some 900+ orders and managed to stay afloat through the downturn of 2009. The point that is being made is that a good product is the first step towards establishing an Indian footprint in the global B&GA industry and it will do us well on BRF to keep an eye and bring to focus individuals and companies working towards this end.

A small side note, I have taken to heart the lamentations of our dear fearless Moderators regarding the Nukkadization of multiple threads. Therefore, although I will continue to post my infrequent ignorant rants , I will attempt to keep it within the hallowed walls of the Nukkad dhaga. It is the will of our dear Moderators , as indicated by the forum title, that this be a purely Business and Technology discussion zone.

Re: Business and General Aviation - India Focus

Posted: 18 Oct 2013 19:53
by vishvak
Suggesting utilization of knowledge learnt during LCA and Co development of fighter jets like Su30 MKI could go a long way. For example flight laws, overall design and manufacturing of components, securing logistics for whole program lives for common components, engines being part of LCA - just one/two stages for similar reasons.

Re: Business and General Aviation - India Focus

Posted: 20 Oct 2013 18:19
by ManjaM
Posting excerpts from a recent AWIN article
India Emerging as a
Potential HEMS Market
Jay Menon Sep 26, 2013
Eurocopter, a division of the global aerospace and defense conglomerate EADS, is planning a pilot helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) for a pan-India network with the help of a consortium of government institutions, private hospitals and other stakeholders.
The project will takeplace in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

Earlier this year, Bengaluru based Aviators - Ltd signed a firm order for an initial batch of seven EC135 for HEMS operations
A second order is expected to be carried out later this year, and rapid growth is anticipated in the HEMS market - as many as 50 helicopters are expected to be deployed throughout the country in the coming years", the (Eurocopter) offocial adds.
In July, three Pilatus PC-12NG helos were customised by one of the largest super speciality hospitals in India, Medanta - The Medicity
Augusta Westland also delivered two AW-109s to Delhi based OSS Air Management late last year to start the first helicopter ambulance service.
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From an earlier article in AWIN (Oct 04, 2010, Anantha Krishnan M) -
HAL launched a Chetak air ambulance variant under the name Vayu Vahanm but the project did not last long after receiving a poor response. "Just one evacuation and it went dead. :wink: We were serious but there were many issues. Even we have envisaged Dhruv in an air ambulance role"
*****************************
Major hurdles appear to be
Lack of open airspace (open sky policy). Opening of upto 5000ft is needed for HEMS to operate in a time effective manner. If it takes 5 hours for a flight plan to be approved, it renders the HEMS ineffective. The article seems to indicate that the government is considering relaxing several rules that a re currently hampering smooth operation of HEMS.

Link to a free article pertaining to the issue - http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/ ... ched-india

Regarding suitability of Dhruv for this purpose, Turkey and Peru currently have Dhruv for their health services, but it is not clear if Turkey uses it as an air ambulance or some other purpose.
Peru has outfitted their Dhruvs as air ambulance - http://www.business-standard.com/articl ... 061_1.html
The interiors of the ALH ambulances to be delivered to Peru will be done up in Europe. HAL is in talks with a few firms specialising in interiors and other accessories typically required by heli-ambulances.

"The reason for interiors being done in Europe is that there are no firms in India specialising in heli-ambulance interiors," an HAL source added

It would probably be significantly cheaper if we have MRO/finishing operations in India capable of handling the outfitting as well, which appears to a decent business opportunity for the inclined.

The useful payload of Dhruv is 2600kgs (vs 1400kgs for EC135) with range and speed being comparable. With 14 seats aqnd a 1500kgs TO weight difference, Dhruv might be uneconomical for the role as currently performed by EC135 within urban areas involving attending to individual patients. Dhruv is more suited to the large scale MEDVAC or an air clinic, servicing areas with poor road connectivity. The HAL plan for a Dhruv based HEMS service might not find many takers within urban based HEMS operators.

Re: Business and General Aviation - India Focus

Posted: 26 Dec 2013 17:48
by ManjaM
Came across this little piece of information while reading the "Flying" magazine -

"Reports from a Chinese news source last week indicated that Meijing Group, a Chinese real estate developer, was negotiating to buy 80-year-old Mooney. It's unclear whether Meijing Group is related to Soaring America, whose president is listed as Cheng-Yuan Chen. Chen is also named as the owner of a hobby store near Los Angeles as well as another mysterious California company called Global Eagle Aircraft."

Mooney would have been a great buy for Tata, Reliance or one of the big industrial houses. Mooney has great brand image, has a bunch of speed records and a loyal following among enthusiasts. The new owners could have leveraged the existing setup to move towards making basic trainers for military.