The National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) initiated taxi trials for the evaluation of an indigenously developed digital anti-skid braking system for the civil aircraft, SARAS Mk2, 19-seat Light Transport aircraft. The low-speed taxi trial was conducted at the speed of about 30 knots and the results are highly satisfactory, the authorities informed.

NAL sources said that there will be about 15 to 20 taxi trials to evaluate system performance.

“Digital anti-skid braking system integration on SARAS Mk2 will benefit operation from airfields with short runways to boost regional air connectivity. The taxi trials were initiated on May 13 to validate the Digital Anti-skid Brake Management System developed for the first time in India for civil aircraft by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and NAL. The state-of-art brake-by-wire Electro-Hydraulic Braking System is configured around indigenously built most advanced high-performance Integrated Avionics & Flight Control Computer (IAFCC) embedded with multicore Power PC, VPX bus architecture and ARINC 653 compliant Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) with safety-critical partitioned virtual wall,” a statement read.

The Union government sanctioned the SARAS-Mk2-19 Seat Light Transport aircraft project to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR- NAL) in June 2019. It is a multirole commuter aircraft with unique features like the pressurised cabin, short take-off and landing, operation from hot and high altitude airfields, operation from semi-prepared runways, autopilot for CAT-II landing, glass cockpit, digitally controlled mechanical systems and is also slated to be the most-versatile aircraft of its class for connecting remotely located Tier-II and Tier-III towns under the UDAN Scheme, sources added.

“The Aircraft is designed to meet the requirements of the Armed Forces as well as those of commercial Airlines by keeping the low operational and acquisition cost by introducing advanced technologies. Indian Air Force has already committed the induction of 15 SARAS Mk2 aircraft,” the statement stated.

In order to cut down the flight testing efforts of SARAS MK2, CSIR- NAL is using its existing SARAS PT1N, a 14-seater aircraft platform, to evaluate the sub-system performance and finetune the design ahead of the SARAS Mk2 maiden flight scheduled in end-2024.

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