Defense News

BANGALORE: Industries in Britain would be interested to partner with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in India's Regional Civil Aircraft programme, a senior British trade official has said.

The message was conveyed by Carole Sweeney, Director of UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) to

a delegation from HAL at a business meeting at the ongoing Farnborough International Air Show in Britain (July 14 to 20), HAL said in a release here.

UK industries would do their best in their known areas of expertise and skills if given an opportunity and they will play a critical role in the success of the programme, she was quoted as having told the HAL executives.

HAL Chairman R K Tyagi said soon Request For Proposal (RFP) would be issued for the engine of the aircraft as 11 bidders have already responded to the recent Request For Information (RFI) issued for the 70-90 seater civil aircraft engine.

The aircraft would be manufactured in India with an expected roll-out by 2022. The UK industries will have their opportunities, he added, according to the HAL release.

T Suvarna Raju, Director, Design and Development of HAL, who gave the outline of the project, said that in the initial period around 400 aircraft are expected to be produced.

"This is a conservative estimate and the potential is much more considering that India has 450 airstrips and more cities would be linked with air travel in future," he added.

HAL and National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) have taken the lead to build the aircraft on PPP model. A Special Purpose Vehicle is being formed by HAL and NAL to steer this project, the release said.

Some of the key representatives from UK industries such as ADS Group, Aircraft Research Association, Cobham, Cranfield University, Meggitt, Rolls Royce, Stirling Dynamics, Ultra Controls, UTAS and UKIBC were present in the meeting, it added.