National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), a constituent of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has adopted the “Passenger Experience” industry solution experience based on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to design civil aircraft in India, specifically the Saras Mk-2 programme.
NAL is also using DraftSight, a feature-rich 2D and 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD) solution for 2D design standardisation in the manufacturing of civil aircraft.
The “Passenger Experience” industry solution experience helps in reducing engineering costs in-cabin completion by up to 40 per cent through engineering, manufacturing, and certification processes automation. It also helps in increasing brand perception and reducing content creation by 40 per cent for all passenger touchpoints for sales and marketing.
“Passenger Experience” combines emotion and automation across engineering, manufacturing and certification processes to allow completion centres to deliver personalised cabin interiors profitably.
The DraftSight solution unifies essential 2D drafting, advanced 2D CAD or all-in-one 2D and 3D design with full 3D capabilities for modelling, prototyping, manufacturing and laser cutting, the company said.
They further added that with the adoption of the “Passenger Experience” industry solution experience, and by replacing existing 2D CAD tools with DraftSight, NAL has expanded its usage of technology solutions from Dassault Systèmes.
It has been using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform in its overall mission and mandate to develop aerospace technologies with strong science content, to design and build small and medium-sized civil aircraft, and to support the nation’s regional connectivity plan such as UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik).
“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,” said Jitendra J Jadhav, Director, 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, pressurised cabins, and low acquisition and maintenance costs. It will be operable from high and hot airfields, and from semi-prepared airfields.
“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.
Dassault Systèmes is enabling companies in the sector by providing new ways to conceptualise, design, manufacture, test, certify and sustain new air and space vehicles. 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,” said Deepak NG, Managing Director, India, Dassault Systèmes.
These developments need to be seen in the context of India’s push towards developing its own aircraft. In August, Indian state-owned aerospace and defense company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) revealed that its civil aircraft Hindustan 228 (registered VT-KNR) had completed the Ground Run and Low-Speed Taxi Trials (LSTT).
