NEW DELHI, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- India's indigenously built light transport aircraft SARAS has been successfully test flown for a second time Wednesday, officials said.
The officials from India's ministry of science and technology said the flight took off from state-owned aerospace and defence company - Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) airport in Bengaluru for a text book flight.
"This was the second of the 20 test flights planned for SARAS PT1N, before freezing the production version," a government spokesman said.
The first successful test was carried out last month.
The design and development of the aircraft is being done by India's Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)- National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL).
"The project was dumped by the previous government, after an accident during test flight in 2009. Though the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had exonerated the aircraft from any design flaw or poor-quality production, no effort was made to revive the project," said Harsh Vardhan, India's minister for Science and Technology. "The credit for reviving the indigenous project goes to the present government headed by Narendra Modi."
The production model design, according to NAL, is expected to be ready by June-July this year, officials said.
