Anurag Jain's Blog on Bangalore Events, Travel, IIM Bangalore, IIM, IIMB, Management

Monday, May 02, 2005

Posted 8:22 AM by Anurag

Aircraft assembly line!

On Saturday, I visited Hosur (in Tamil Nadu) at an aircraft manufacturing facility. Indus Aviation is creating a whole new platform to promote General Aviation in India. And airplane manufacturing and selling is a part of those plans. Indus is getting Thorp T-211 manufactured at a private plane manufacturer's facility at Hosur. In India, there are no other private players in aircraft manufacturing. I think this could be the next opportunity where one can take advantage of the 'labour' arbitrage. Companies like Embraer of Brazil already are exploiting the principle by setting up manufatcuring facilities in China.

Anyhow, coming back to the visit, Indus' MD, Kiran Kota is a good friend and I'd been planning to visit the factory for quite sometime. Hence, when on Friday he asked me if I was free on Saturday, I jumped. On Saturday morning however, I got the address wrong for the Indus Aviation Complex and went wandering around Indiranagar 80 ft Road, when instead I had to be there at Koramangala 80 ft Road. Never mind that. Almost half an hour later, I was there with Kiran, and off we went. An hour or so later, we were at the Hosur factory. On the way to the factory, we passed TVS' plant and some other big companies manufacturing set-ups.

Once there, I was quite enthralled as this was my first visit to any sort of aviation manufacturing set-up. There was whole lot of different types of aircrafts being manufactured, ranging from their own to government's to 3-rd party planes. More about visit in pics (click on pics for bigger version).

Me With Indus Aviation's VT-IAS (not registered). They are gonna put this baby in their upcoming showroom.

Another snap with VT-IAS (not registered). This time with Engine!

In Indus Aviation's Thorp T-211 (N6524V). This was brought from the US, as you can ascertain from the registration number. Of course, you need FAA certification to fly it in India!

On the way back, Kiran's Qualis had a flat tyre, so we basked in the sun while Daniel, his driver changed the tyre. That's when Kiran told me that Daniel has got a MS Flight Simulator training certificate! Maan, they sure do follow participative management.

I would love to talk whole lot more about Indus' plans but lest they should ask me to sign me an NDA next time, lemme restrain myself. All I wanna say is that I am sure with Indus' plans (and planes), they are going to grow big, and soon!

2 comments

Comments:

is this refurbishing facility for aircrafts ? The reason for asking is , u mention that the thorpedo was imported here ???

# posted by

The Buck Stops Here : May 03, 2005 7:46 AM

Yeah, refurbishing too is undertaken at this facility. (And I dont remember mentioning anything about thorpedo!)

# posted by

Anurag : May 04, 2005 9:10 AM