CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (CSIR-NAL), Bengaluru, under the aegis of the Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt of India, has indigenously designed and developed the HANSA-3(NG) trainer aircraft for Commercial Pilot Licensing (CPL). Indigenous 19-seater Light Transport Aircraft (LTA) is under development for connecting Tier-1 & Tier-2 cities. The other ongoing initiatives at CSIR-NAL include a high altitude solar-powered drone (High Altitude Platform (HAP)) — to undertake persistent surveillance, NAviMet (DRISHTI and AWOS) for Safe Landing & Take-off Operations at Airports and a collaborative project on 150 kg class Loitering Munition — UAV (LM-UAV) with industry partner M/s Solar Defence & Aerospace Ltd.
Unveiling the production version of Hansa-3(NG) aircraft, Dr Jitendra Singh, Hon’ble Minister for State for Science & Technology (independent charge), and Vice President of CSIR, lauded the efforts of scientists for the successful demonstration and commercialisation of indigenous Hansa-3(NG) with an industry partner, M/s Pioneer Clean Amps Pvt. Ltd (PCA) during April 2025 at New Delhi. He stated that the aircraft will satisfy the requirements of flying clubs for obtaining PPL (Personal Pilot License) & CPL (Commercial Pilot License) by the young generation. As per recent reports, India will need 30,000 pilots over the next 15-20 years, up from the current 6,000-7,000 pilots, given that Indian airlines cumulatively have over 1,700 aircraft on order. CSIR-NAL’s industry partner M/s PCA will be setting up the manufacturing facility at Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh. The facility will manufacture 70 to 100 aircraft annually and employ about 250 people. This is the best example of “Atmanirbhar Bharat”. The Minister opined that this collaboration will accelerate the indigenous aircraft manufacturing, making the Hansa-NG competitive on the global platform, as it signals India’s growing capabilities in the aerospace manufacturing ecosystem.
The Minister further stated that India has the potential to be among the top three nations in the world in terms of domestic and international passenger traffic. It has an ideal geographical location between the eastern and western hemispheres, a strong middle class of about 300 million Indians and a rapidly growing economy. In view of this, CSIR-NAL is looking to tap this business opportunity as it has already gained good experience in indigenous design and development of pressurised aircraft. CSIR-NAL is currently developing the 19-seat LTA-SARAS MK2 aircraft, which will have digital avionics, glass cockpit, autopilot, command-by-wire flight control system and pressurised cabin, with significant drag and weight reduction complying with IAF requirements. The SARAS MK2 will be derived for both civil/military operations. IAF has already given a letter of Intent to initially procure 15 aircraft for troop transfer.
Gracing the occasion by inaugurating the Iron Bird Facility for the Saras Mk-2 aircraft on 29 November 2025, Dr Jitendra Singh said that this facility will provide a comprehensive, ground-based testing platform for integrating and validating all major aircraft systems. By identifying and resolving potential problems on the ground, the facility helps to significantly lower the risks and costs associated with the actual flight testing, thereby enhancing safety and reliability. The iron bird facility allows engineers to quickly find and fix design flaws and software bugs early in the development process, and helps to speed up the time to market.
Inaugurating the dedicated manufacturing facility for the High Altitude Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) capable of operating at altitudes above 20 km in the stratosphere for military, civil, and scientific applications, the minister said only a few countries like the USA, United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, New Zealand, and Japan have initiated programmes to develop similar high-altitude aircraft. The Minister further added that India has initiated such a programme to demonstrate a Proof-of-concept through a technology demonstrator vehicle capable of sustained flight for several hours at an altitude of 20 km, thereby joining a select group of the league of developed countries. He expressed his happiness for the demonstration of CSIR-NAL’s subscale version achieving an altitude of 7.5 km above Mean Sea Level (MSL) and an endurance of over 10 hours. He informed that the first flight of the full-scale vehicle to 20 km altitude is planned for March 2027, and this platform will enable the researchers to work on an alternative approach to satellite technology with cost-effectiveness.
Inaugurating the NAviMet (National Aerospace Laboratories Aviation Meteorological) system at HAL Airport, the Minister stated that CSIR-NAL’s indigenous, innovative, comprehensive weather monitoring system developed will aid in measuring many crucial weather parameters, such as Visibility, Temperature, Humidity, Present Weather, Pressure, Wind Speed & Direction, etc., at the airports. He further said that the first NAviMet system was installed at HAL’s Helicopter Manufacturing Facility at Tumakuru, which was inaugurated in 2022 by the Hon’ble Prime Minister. He expressed his happiness in inaugurating the second system at HAL Airport, Bengaluru.
Lauding the efforts of CSIR-NAL in signing the collaborative agreement with industry participation M/s Solar Defence & Aerospace Ltd, at the stage of design & development itself for LM-UAV, Hon’ble Minister stated that CSIR has initiated a project on indigenous design, development and testing of Loitering Munition (LM) UAV of 150 Kg Class. This LM UAV will be powered by the NAL-developed Wankel engine already certified by CEMILAC for integration into an unmanned aerial vehicle and qualify the flight. The performance parameters of this UAV will be on par with contemporary UAVs of this class across the globe. It will have a range of 900 kilometres, endurance of 6 to 9 hours, with a service ceiling of 5 kilometres. The UAV will have state-of-the-art features like GPS denied Navigation, Low Radar Cross Section, and AI-enabled DRI (Detection, Recognition & Identification). The overall goal of this project is to offer a make-in-India product to the armed forces with the industry partner M/s. Solar Defence and Aerospace Ltd (SADL), Nagpur, demonstrates the best example of the PPP model. Both CSIR & Solar Group will work together to achieve a common goal of national interest by leveraging their combined skills and knowledge. The Minister wished both the CSIR team and Solar Group a fruitful collaboration to realise the Prime Minister’s vision of “Atmanirbhar Bharat” to make India self-reliant in defence production.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Satyanarayan Nuwal, Chairman, M/s Solar Defence and Aerospace Ltd (SADL), thanked the Hon’ble Minister & CSIR authorities and affirmed that SADL can excel as a successful LM-UAV collaborative & production partner and commercialise at a desired scale to serve the nation’s interest. He committed to striving hard to meet the Indian Army’s tactical & strategic needs in making India self-reliant in the defence sector.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri AVM Ashish Singh, VSM VM ACAS Ops (Remote), Air HQ (VB), congratulated the Team CSIR & CSIR-NAL for their commitments and R&D efforts towards nation building with their indigenous technologies & products like Hansa-3(NG), Saras Mk2, HAPs, NaviMet, and LM-UAV. He appreciated the Atmanirbhar initiatives in public and private partnership mode.
