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Time of India
05-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
India has made huge leap in missile technology: Former DRDO chairman
Dr G Satheesh Reddy COIMBATORE: India has reduced its missile production turnaround time from 10-12 years to 2-3 years, making a huge leap in technology, said Dr G Satheesh Reddy, president of the Aeronautical Society of India and former secretary of Directorate of Defence Research & Development and chairman of DRDO . 'This enables us to stand on a par with developed countries like the US, Russia and China though these countries are one to two decades ahead of us," he told TOI on the sidelines of a programme in Coimbatore on Saturday. "India is a missile power. India is actively developing hypersonic missiles and air-to-ground-borne missiles like the BrahMos,' he said. He said India has 300-400 drone manufacturing companies with nearly 25,000 AI engineers in the southern region. They are capable of making the world use products made in India. "So far, India was working for others, getting their products. Now India has to make them get our products and also get them to work for us," he said. Earlier, addressing at the Academia-Industry Meet 2025 for Aerospace & Defence, hosted by the Kumaraguru Centre for Industrial Research & Innovation in association with the Aeronautical Society of India, he highlighted four key takeaways from Operation Sindoor. First, the Indian armed forces have gained confidence in indigenous technologies. Second, it boosted the morale of the country. Third, the industry has witnessed success, which will increase orders. Lastly, the world has seen India's capabilities, which is expected to increase export orders as well.
The Hindu
05-07-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
‘Operation Sindoor has reinforced thrust on indigenisation of defence products'
Operation Sindoor that has displayed India's defence capabilities to the world will reflect in a renewed thrust for indigenisation of defence products, G. Satheesh Reddy, president, Aeronautical Society of India and former Secretary of Department of Defence Research and Development said in Coimbatore on Saturday. The takeaways from Operation Sindoor constitute confidence of armed forces in the country's industry, a boost to the morale of scientists, the possibilities created for industries to get defence orders and the scope for export orders for India's defence products, Dr. Reddy said, addressing the Academia-Industry Meet – 2025 on Aerospace organised by Kumaraguru Centre for Industrial Research and Innovation (KCIRI) of Kumaraguru Institutions, in association with the CODISSIA Defence Innovation and Atal Incubation Centre (CDIIC) and the Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI). The event was envisioned as a platform to strengthen collaborations between academia and industry, promote indigenous defence technology, and drive progress in the Coimbatore Defence Corridor, in alignment with the national vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat. State governments were now vying with one another to make the most of the potential in defence and aerospace industries. Industry clusters could consider creating export promotion cells, as India has set a target for manufacture of indigenous defence products worth ₹3 lakh crore by the next three years. Likewise, the export target has also been increased correspondingly, he said. Operation Sindoor has shown to the world India's air defence system, accuracy of strikes, and integrated command system. Now that India's defence capabilities are known, industry and academia need to work together to further technologies and bring in the surprise element (in future warfare) for assured success, Dr. Satheesh noted, emphasising that industries have to look at opportunities at this juncture. Lt. General. Karanbir Singh Brar, GOC, Dakshin Bharat Area, in his presentation of 'Opportunities for development of technologies for defence applications and collaborating with Indian Army' said that while the processes have been simplified under Atmanirbhar Bharat for conversion of prototypes into orders, and through tweaking of the procurement system, a deep understanding of the users has become a necessity. Most of the start-ups were in the proof of concept stage. In industry-academic collaboration, India needs to accelerate as USA and China have already taken long strides, Gen. Brar stressed. Earlier, V. Sundaram, CDIIC, CODDISSIA, spelt out the road map for broad-basing Coimbatore's contribution to the defence sector. A. Seshadri Sekhar, Director, IIT Palakkad, while addressing on 'Academia and Defence Collaborative mode for development of disruptive technology' said the institution has given push for industry-academia collaboration through a unique initiative of academic externship that entitles faculty to avail special leave for two months to study the industrial processes and subsequently engage students in real-time problem-solving. Chandrika Kaushik, Director General - Product Coordination and Services Interaction, DRDO, dwelt on 'possibilities of collaboration with the DRDO on development of systems and technologies'. India was now particular about indigenisation of defence products even if it was costlier, Dr. Chandrika said. The event culminated with an interactive session on Aerospace and Defence Ecosystem: R&D, Production, Policies, and Industry-Academia Collaboration, that had the participation of A. Joseph, Managing Director, BrahMos Aerospace, among other leading experts.
Hindustan Times
14-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
How aircraft toilets work, and why they often clog together
Clogged lavatories have disrupted two of Air India's international flights in the span of two months, drawing attention to how aircraft toilets operate. All but one of the toilets on a Boeing 777 (B777) from Chicago to Delhi became unusable in March, forcing the aircraft to return, and at least five toilets clogged on a B777 from Toronto to Delhi this month, forcing a diversion to Frankfurt. A B777 typically has 12 toilets, but why should so many clog simultaneously? The key factor is the location of the objects causing the blockage — often polythene bags or pieces of cloth — which can affect all toilets whose waste lines pass through that area. But, regardless of whether one or multiple toilets are affected, such blockages stem from a disruption in the physics that aircraft lavatory systems rely on. Vacuum toilets Aircraft must, by necessity, maintain cabin pressure at a level higher than the atmospheric pressure outside — and this pressure differential also underpins the scientific principle on which aircraft toilets operate. The primary reason for maintaining relatively high cabin pressure is passenger safety and comfort. At an altitude of, say, 35,000 feet, the air pressure is around 3.45 pounds per square inch or psi (for context sea-level pressure is roughly four times higher). To ensure passengers have enough oxygen to breathe, cabin pressure is typically maintained at 11 to 12 psi. The aircraft toilet system takes advantage of the pressure differential between the cabin and the surrounding atmosphere by creating a vacuum so that air at higher pressure rushes toward the area of lower pressure, carrying waste along with it. This does not mean the waste is expelled into the atmosphere — as might happen to characters in an action movie when an aircraft door blows open. Instead, the waste is directed into a holding tank located in a lower-pressure zone in an area where the pressure is lower, similar to the conditions outside the aircraft. Also Read: Polythene bags, clothes clogged toilets: Air India after flight returns to US 'The waste tank is located below the floor of the aircraft cabin, in an unpressurised area. This tank, when full, can be serviced (emptied of waste material) whenever the aircraft lands at an airport,' said Ashwani Sharma, a veteran aircraft maintenance engineer who served with Air India for many years and is currently a professor of practice at Chandigarh University's aerospace engineering department and chairman of the Aeronautical Society of India's Mumbai branch. When one flushes a toilet at home, it releases a stream of water that carries the waste into a sewer line. In contrast, when one flushes an aircraft toilet, it opens a valve at the bottom of the toilet bowl, exposing the contents to the pressure differential. Air from the cabin immediately rushes into the bowl and, often noisily, passes through the valve on its way to the waste tank. The science behind clogging What is flushed down the toilet is often the reason behind clogging. Another cause can be mineral buildup — something that frequently affects household toilets — but clogs in aircraft toilets are more often associated with items flushed by fliers and where these end up in the network of drain lines. Different aircraft models have different numbers of toilets and water tanks. Narrow-body, single-aisle aircraft such as the Boeing B737 MAX and Airbus A320 NEO have one tank each, while wide-body, twin-aisle aircraft have two or more. 'A B777 has two tanks, while an Airbus A350 has four. If there are two tanks, then half the toilets would be connected to each,' Sharma said. Also Read: Air India flight returns to Chicago over clogged loos HT has reported earlier that the B777 diverted to Frankfurt had three sewer lines. No details were immediately available on how these three lines were divided between two tanks (if there were indeed two), but it is easy to understand why some clogs affect a larger number of toilets than others. A clog in a vacuum-based toilet means that one or more objects are acting as a barrier between the areas of higher and lower pressure, so the air in the cabin can no longer flow out with the waste, making the principle of differential pressure unworkable, Sharma said. 'If the clog is in a portion of drain line that is near the waste tank, then all toilets connected to that particular tank will be clogged as the clog will prevent differential pressure being created. If, however, the clog is in a toilet bowl or the drain line immediately below the bowl, then only that toilet would be clogged,' he added. Size matters because some items may be small enough to pass through the toilet bowl hole but too large to go through the drain line, whose diameter is smaller. 'This can block the drain line. Once there's a block in the line, differential pressure cannot be created and all toilets connected to that waste tank would become unserviceable,' Sharma said. Looking for solutions Sharma stressed that the problem of clogging is not limited to Air India or any single airline, calling it a universal issue. As such, newer ways to prevent or reduce clogging continue to be discussed. For example, a mesh could be placed at the end of the toilet bowl. 'The mesh will not allow a plastic bottle or a diaper to go through and block the line, but waste matter will go,' Sharma said. 'But it can create other issues,' he said. The suction pressure is so high that if a weak material is used, it will not last. Then again, if the material is too strong, the toilet bowl itself can get blocked. 'The difference is that if the toilet bowl gets blocked, only one toilet will become unserviceable. That particular toilet can be labelled as such, but the others will continue working.' Sharma said. It remains an evolving area with scope for innovation.
