National Aerospace Laboratories Now to Use Dassault’s Technology to Design Civil Aircraft
National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), a constituent of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has adopted French software company, Dassault Systemes’ “Passenger Experience” industry design software based on the 3D EXPERIENCE platform to design civil aircraft in India.
NAL said that this technology will be used first specifically for Saras Mk-2 program.
NAL is also using Dassault’s DraftSight, a 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD) solution in place of 2D design standardization in the manufacturing of civil aircraft.
What is Dassault’s ‘Passenger Experience’ & ‘Draftsight’ Platform?
Dassault’s “Passenger Experience” is an industrial design solution that helps in reducing engineering costs in cabin completion by up to 40% through engineering, manufacturing and certification processes automation. The solution includes Virtual-Twin features. This allows aircraft completion centres to deliver personalized cabin interiors more profitably. It also has provision to highlight passenger touch points (differentiating features) which can be used in sales and marketing.
DraftSight will be replacing existing 2D CAD tools which will help NAL to expand its usage of latest technology solutions for aircraft designing. This would be one of its kind technology adoption in India to design and build small and medium-sized civil aircraft. Government has been focusing on development of such indigenous planes to support the nation’s regional connectivity plan such as UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik).
Commenting on the development Mr. Jitendra J Jadhav, Director, NAL said “The 3DEXPERIENCE platform-based ‘Passenger Experience’ solution has been deployed in designing the Cabin and Cockpit of the Saras Mk-2 program. Virtual twin-based insights offered by this solution helped us to configure the cabin for various use cases and scenarios”.
‘Saras Mk-2’- Indigenous Medium Sized Aircraft by NAL
Saras Mk-2 will be a 19-seater aircraft with features like high cruise speed, lower fuel consumption, short landing and take-off distances, low cabin noise, pressurized cabins and low acquisition and maintenance costs. On commissioning, this plane will be operable from high altitude as well high temperature airfields and also from semi-prepared airfields.
Expressing his views on this partnership Mr. Deepak NG, Managing Director, India, Dassault Systemes said “As systems in the Aerospace and Defense industry become more complex to design, build and deliver, OEMs and suppliers need to accelerate innovation, drive efficiencies and adopt collaborative platforms to allow for greater agility on production rate“.
He further added, “We have long been an integral part of the aerospace industry globally and we intend to replicate the success in India through the association with NAL and in the local development of civil aircraft”.
About NAL: National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) is a State owned and India’s first aerospace manufacturing firm. It was established by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) at Delhi in 1959 and its headquarters was later moved to Bangalore in 1960. The firm closely operates with HAL, DRDO and ISRO and has the prime responsibility of developing civilian aircraft in India. The aircrafts developed till date are NAL Hansa, NAL Saras, NAL NM5. Along with these NAL is involved in developing unmanned aerial vehicles.
About Dassault Systemes India Dassault Systemes India Pvt. Ltd. is a direct subsidiary of Dassault Aviation SA, the french aerospace multinational which recently supplied India Rafael Fighter jets. Dassault Systemes offers processing services and software design services.
