A thousand career dreams take wing at aeronautics show

At a time when National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Bangalore is taking special measures to attract young people into its fold, about 3,000 youths sprang a surprise on the institute by evincing interest in career prospects in aeronautics here on Sunday.

Youngsters from schools and colleges came in hordes to the day-long technological exhibition organised by NAL, the high technology oriented institution concentrating on advanced research in aeronautics and related disciplines.

The exhibition was organised as part of the Foundation Day celebrations of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). The event was hosted at NAL’s Belur Campus.

“It’s nice to see so many young people from schools and colleges coming to the exhibition and expressing interest to be part of NAL,” said AR Upadhya, director of NAL.

“The very objective of this event is to expose students to the exciting world of aeronautics and aviation with the hope that they will take up aeronautics as a career option,” Upadhya added.
A special desk was set up at the exhibition centre to address the queries from students.

“Currently, NAL is looking for bright and highly motivated technical staff to participate in the exciting tasks of aerospace R&D, technology development and related applications. We also groom young people to be part of our fraternity,” said an official of NAL.

In addition to many research, development and technology programmes in aerospace, NAL is actively involved in supporting the National Aerospace Programmes of the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Indian Air Force (IAF).

Moreover, NAL has a strong programme in civil aviation, including the nationally-important project of design and development of the multi-role light transport aircraft, Saras.

“Thus we require many committed people to be part of our various programmes,” said NAL’s director.

Youngsters buoyant
“It’s a good exposure for us. I have always been fascinated by aeronautics and am planning to pursue my further studies in this stream,” said Sekhar Ravi, a third year engineering student.

The NAL’ s technological innovations and recent achievements were on display at the exhibition.  The exhibits included NAL’s programmes highlighting societal missions. They covered tapping of wind energy, power generation from solar ponds, weather forecasting, support to India’s space programme, smart material and structural health monitoring composite materials, and design and development of small civil aircraft.

The highlight of the event included live flight demonstrations of NAL developed micro air vehicles (MAVs) and radio-controlled unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at NAL’s cricket grounds in Kodihalli campus.

MAV is an autonomous flying vehicle capable of carrying a payload and a miniaturised video camera which can locate nearby enemy troop positions. MAV can carry various special sensors on its payload to support civil and military missions as traffic monitoring, weather observations, anti-terrorist operations and enemy surveillance.