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India emerges avionics manufacturing hub

By agencies | Monday, 25 July 2005, 00:00 Hrs

Aerospace industry has not been an early adoptor of core product engineering outsourcing. However, companies like Boeing and Airbus have started to realise that outsourcing is probably the only option for them to remain competitive. Computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided engineering (CAE) outsourcing in aerospace primarily revolves around four major sub-systems of the aircraft, namely landing gear, engine, flight controls and devices. Apart from these sub-systems, the fuselage, wings and flaps are the most commonly outsourced components at the airframe manufacturer (Boeing, Airbus) level.

So, what kind of work is coming to India? Till a few years ago, it was mainly verification and validation kind of work which was coming to India. Unit testing, integration testing, coding, and other low-end work like documentation was sourced from India. Recently, however, major aircraft makers are sourcing full system design work, too, says George.

Now, Indian IT firms are involved right from the systems requirement stage, all the way till systems testing and certification support. Other areas of work being outsourced here are hardware engineering, embedded software engineering pertaining to system development and support and maintenance, and mechanical engineering like modelling, detailing, etc, he adds.

Going forward, opportunities for Indian IT firms exist in developing hardware and software in various aero sub-domains like flight management systems, flight control systems, cockpit display and information systems, flight warning system, engine control systems, navigation, surveillance/air traffic management, etc.

The domestic aerospace sector, represented by HAL, BEL, ISRO, etc, is a rich source of knowledge and trained professionals. In addition, the process rigour of Indian IT companies, combined with the cost arbitrage advantage which India offers, makes it attractive to foreign aerospace companies. Also, access to the domestic market through the Indian IT companies is another attraction.

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