Country lacks testing facilities for aircraft engines: Kota Harinarayana - The New Indian Express
Hard facts right there. We do not have the kind of manpower, the infrastructure to test and develop the Jet engine on a industrial scale. newindianexpress.com/states/karnata…
Hard facts right there. We do not have the kind of manpower, the infrastructure to test and develop the Jet engine on a industrial scale. newindianexpress.com/states/karnata…
Wind tunnels are not standard test facilities. There are 20 odd different parameters that go into designing each wind tunnel based on the applications. Usually a user spends time and energy in determining the configuration of the wind tunnel they need based on calculations.
This might be part of the reason why we asked Boeing to invest in a Transonic wind tunnel in India as part of offsets obligation. They have long history of building wind tunnels for various applications. Disappointing to see that that offset obligation didn’t go through.
We all could’ve benefited from a world class wind tunnel. If I’m not wrong, our automotive sector too lacks a full scale wind tunnel to test prototypes. This means they take vehicles abroad for aerodynamic testing, hence cut down on testing and rely on math models early stage.
Or maybe funding is the problem here. A typical full scale wind tunnel would cost around ₹1000 crore to design and build. But the govt should see this as a strategic investment. Has secondary benefits across different industries & could actually recuperate costs by leasing out
Coming to think of it, very cunning of Boeing to renege on the Wind tunnel offset obligation and focus on low value mfg and assembly offsets. Denies us of design capabilities keeping us dependent on foreign R&D. How did Indian govt accept to this?
But nothing less was expected of. No one would sign up to put a very critical R&D facility in a foreign country that would multiply the technical capabilities of that nation.
