Saras PT-1N (14 seater) designed and developed by CSIR-NAL, a frontline aerospace research laboratory, has successfully made its maiden flight on 24.01.18. The flight was commanded by Wing Commander U P Singh, Group Captain R V Panicker and Group Captain K P Bhat of the Indian Air Force (Aircraft and System Testing Establishment).

The aircraft took off at about 11am from HAL airport and flew for about 40 minutes at the maximum height of 8500 ft at the speed of 145 knots. All the system parameters are found normal. It was a text book flight.

The primary objective is to evaluate the system performance in about 20 flights and the data collected from this shall be used to freeze the design of production version aircraft. The productions version aircraft will be of 19 seat capacity and will undergo civil/military certification.