Get Your House In Order

While the market is undoubtedly lucrative, developing the RTA 70 and competing in the international market against well established players such as Embraer and ATR will be a formidable challenge.

- Air Marshal B.K. Pandey

In September last year, the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) announced the revival of its plans to design and develop a 70-seater civil aircraft for regional aviation. Placed under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) of the Government of India, NAL was established in the year 1959 and today, it is the only aerospace R&D laboratory in the civilian sector under the Government of India. Designated as the RTA 70, the project to design and develop a regional airliner was first proposed in 2007 with the estimated time frame for it to take to the air as eight years. The responsibility for series production of the newly designed platform was to be assigned to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).