Kate Sarsfield/LONDON
India's Taneja Aerospace and Aviation (TAAL) plans to roll out the first fully indigenously produced Partenavia P.68 light twin in September, five months later than originally planned.
The roll-out will coincide with the launch of TAAL'S fractional ownership scheme, which is claimed by the company to be the first of its kind in India.
Bureaucracy and cumbersome government legislation are blamed for the delay in the roll-out, which will take place at TAAL's production site in Hosur, near Bangalore. TAAL, a subsidiary of engineering company Indian Seamless Tube Group, began manufacturing and assembling the P.68 in January, after it ceased importing kits from the aircraft's Italian designer Partenavia.
TAAL has delivered five P.68s built using the Italian kits. The Indian company has an orderbook for a further five indigenously manufactured aircraft. The most recent order (for a P.68C) was placed in June by an undisclosed Indian air-taxi company, with delivery planned for the end of September.
Three P.68Cs will initially be offered in TAAL's Netair programme. The company has signed five Indian companies for the scheme and is looking for a further four. "We will still go ahead with the launch even if we do not have the desired number of customers," says TAAL's regional marketing manager, Vinod Singel.
The company is holding discussions with several local companies in the Bangalore and Madras regions which have expressed an interest in the idea.
Meanwhile, TAAL's single-engined Hansa ab initio trainer, designed by the Indian National Aerospace Laboratories, is on course for US Federal Aviation Administration certification in January 1998.
Three prototypes of the all-composite aircraft have been flown.
Source: Flight International
