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Chennai, June 3: Three engineering students from Chennai have designed and built a two-seater aircraft in less than five months as part of their aeronautical course project.
Jukaki Skyraider is India’s first powered aircraft that has been built from scratch by students. The three are Justin George, Kishore K. and Kalyan Shreshta of the Aeronautical Department Hindustan University (deemed) on the outskirts of Chennai.
Although the Skyraider looks boxy and not as robust as the commercially built turbo-prop aircraft, a lot of improvisation and innovation lies beneath its bright red fuselage and large white wings.
It is powered by a Maruti Esteem’s 1,300cc engine from Chennai’s second-hand automobile market. “Since the Esteem’s engine had a very high rpm of 6,000 and this aircraft needed only 3,000 rpm, but providing greater torque we revved it down to suit our needs,” explained Justin.
“Since the frame had to be light yet sturdy, we used special aluminium tubes which could be welded only using tungsten gas. Thankfully, we found a fabricator who had the facility and knowhow of the special metallurgy needs our project required,” said a grateful Kishore. A local carpenter was happy to fabricate the wooden propeller free of cost.
The wheel assembly came from an LCV (light commercial vehicle), the wings and the fuselage are covered with light weight aluminium and the instrumentation looks like that of an old Ambassador car.
“We still need to equip it with an air-speed indicator, altimeter, gyroscope and a radio transponder to make it worthy of air certification by the DGCA,” pointed out Kalyan. That would mean an expense of another Rs1 lakh with the team having already spent close to Rs 5lakh from their own pockets.
As of now, the students could only demonstrate the aircraft’s ground mobility by taking it for a spin on the college’s football ground.
“The plane is definitely air worthy as the boys have built it as per the parameters of aerodynamics that would give it the necessary thrust and lift to make it and keep it airborne,” asserted. P.S. Venkatanarayanan, the students’ project guide.
An assistant professor of aerospace engineering at IIT Bombay said: “If it was entirely done by students — even with faculty mentoring — I would say, it is pretty significant.”
Hemandra Arya added: “Designing an aircraft is a challenging task. This class of aircraft is called home-built aircraft. Success would depend on the values of the wing loading and thrust loading numbers for the aircraft. The values have to fall within a specific range — if they do, they have a great chance of success.”
