For all these years, HAL was the only manufacturing company in aviation sector with huge manufacturing facilities built over the years. HAL over the years has developed expertise in managing the technologies of aircraft building and has absorb new technologies in manufacturing areas like machining, forming, welding, assembly, testing and aircraft system checks.The aircraft airframes are made at Nashik, engines at Koraput, accessories at Hyderabad (communication and navigation), hydraulic, pneumatic and fuel aggregates and instruments at Lucknow and avionic displays and INGPS at Korwa.

The 2005 defence offsets policy turned things in favour of domestic manufacturing. Industrial groups, including the Tatas, Mahindras and L&T, formed partnerships and talked big investments in this sector.

Quest Global: A joint venture of Quest Global Manufacturing and Saab is planning to set up a manufacturing unit for aerospace and defence engineering services to be located in Quest Global’s Special Economic Zone in Belgaum, Karnataka. On the outskirts of Belgaum, the 300-acre special economic zone (SEZ) set up is already notified as the state’s first precision engineering region.

It will be another design-to-build capability in aerospace like state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics. Over the past four years, Quest has developed essential capabilities of an aerospace cluster, such as machining, surface treatment, forging and assembly. It has done some on its own; for others, it formed joint ventures with overseas partners: Magellan Aerospace of Canada, Saab of Sweden and Aubert & Duval of France. The ventures are to serve the global supply chain, although India’s share in the $100 billion commercial aerospace manufacturing is a paltry $100 million.

Mahindra Aerospace: Under the Karnataka’s 10-year aerospace policy with target $10 billion in investment, Mahindra Aerospace’s first greenfield project is nearing completion in Kolar that is dedicated to the production and innovation of the best utility aircraft and aerostructures that meet the varied needs of the global market.

Utility Aircraft:
Mahindra Aerospace, an AS 9100 Rev C certified company started with the acquisition of the Australian company, GippsAero in 2009. Over the years, GippsAero has grown into one of the largest Australian manufacturing companies with production of 20-25 aircraft per year. Gipps Aero has been assisting Mahindra Aerospace in manufacturingthe first 5-seater aircraft in partnership with CSIR-NAL.The combined strength in India and Australia is capable of realizing an idea of a perfect aircraft from its nascent stage to full-fledged certification and production level.

Aerostructures:
M&M acquired Aerostaff Australia for manufacturing aero structures. Aerostaff is an established supplier of close tolerance high-precision sheet metal and value-added products to aerospace and defense customers across the globe. Its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Bangalore will soon focus on component and aerostructures assembly in sheet metal, machining, and special processing. The 250,000 square feet facility, besides meeting all customer requirements, will also deliver all possible standards of high-quality finished products. In addition, the facility will house capability to make large parts and assemblies.

RIL in aerospace
RIL, one of the latest major private-sector entrants into aerospace, had cash reserves of Rs 82,975 crore as on March 31, 2013. The Mukesh Ambani-controlled conglomerate recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Boeing to grab the offset work when the aerospace giant begins work on supplying P8I naval reconnaissance aircraft to the Indian Navy. India’s biggest private sector company by revenue is looking to spend $1 billion (almost Rs 5,500 crore) in the sector and hire some 2,000 engineers over the next few years in its aerospace division; it has now agreed to partner with the world’s second-largest aerospace company in the latter’s offset programme — which requires for-eign aerospace sellers to source 30% of its inputs from domestic partners.

As per a recent report, Swiss aircraft maker Pilatus is planning to set up a manufacturing facility in India, starting with the manufacture of airframes.

With huge domestic requirements in aviation sector, big industrial houses must go whole hog for manufacturing with collaborations of reputed global companies and develop a large number of vendors for all parts and services .