India Revives Passenger Plane Project as China, Japan Race Ahead
- Fourteen-seat aircraft, called Saras, undergoing initial tests
- Plane suffered setback in 2009 when test flight ended in crash
A prototype of India's 14-seater Saras aircraft in 2004.
Photographer: indranil Mukherjee/AFP via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
India is reviving a three-decade-old plan to build its first passenger aircraft as the South Asian country struggles to join an exclusive club of Asian nations that have advanced far ahead in creating their own home-made jets.
A 14-seat aircraft, called Saras, is undergoing preliminary tests, Jitendra Jadhav, director of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research at state-controlled National Aerospace Laboratories, said in an interview in Bengaluru on Wednesday. The development of the twin-turboprop plane suffered a setback in 2009 when a test flight ended in a fiery crash, killing all three crew on board.