Lighter-Than-Air Systems Laboratory

Mr. Nouman worked as a Project Intern (July 2019- Sept 2019), IRCC Research Intern (Jan 2020- Mar 2020), NPTEL Intern (Apr 2020- July 2020), and Project Research Assistant (Apr 2021- July 2022). He was also involved in designing a test rig for a phase change based LTA system.

As an intern in the LTA lab between 2014-2015, he worked on several projects namely, sizing and fabrication of Spherical Aerostat Envelope, as well as design and sizing of Inflatable Unmanned Aircraft.

Mr. Tushar is currently placed as a Technical Project Leader at the Cummins Technical Center India, Pune. During his post-graduation he worked on multidisciplinary optimization of Airship shape to achieve minimum drag, lower stresses for fixed volume constraint under the guidance of Prof. Marathe and Prof. Pant.

Mr. Navin is a PhD research scholar from the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai. He got associated with LTA lab during his IRCC research internship program (Jan-May 2017). During this, he worked on designing and studying the feasibility of hot air tethered aerostat systems.

Worked at the LTA Systems Lab in the summer of 2018, as a summer research intern, on a ROS-Gazebo framework for simulation of an autonomous airship. Also, helped Prof. Pant in organizing a drone workshop.

During his undergraduate study in Aeronautical Engineering at Manipal Institute of Technology, he was a project research assistant in the LTA lab during May 2012-July 2022. He also worked as an itern during May-July 2018.

Mr. Shuvendra is currently designated as a PhD research scholar in Space Engineering and Rocketry Department at the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra. He worked as an under-graduate intern in the LTA lab between Jan-Apr 2014 to build a thrust vectoring mechanism for indoor RC airship.

Mr. Uday is currently employed as a Senior Technical Writer in Trivandrum. He was previosly positioned as Intern in the LTA systems laboratory (2013-2014) and he worked on Biomimetic airship. He was able to design & fabricate airships & LTA Systems for the particular internship project.

Me. Alap is currently carrying out his PhD research in Mechanical Engineering at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. He was placed as a Junior Research Fellow (JRF) at the LTA Systems Lab between Sept. 2014 - June 2015. He worked on a couple of projects namely, "Trajectory simulation of breakaway aerostat" and "Development of a dismantle-able semi rigid airship".

As an ex-intern in the LTA lab, Mr. Utsav carried out three internshp projects between June 2012 and Aug 2013. He worked on design and development of airships and their ground-handling systems as well as on the design of a temperature-based alarming system for enhancing the reliability of airships.

He started at LTA Systems Lab as an intern in 2014 and left in 2019 as an Assistant Project Manager. He worked primarily on Aerostat Sytems including the first-ever Balloon-Kite Hybrid System for the lab funded by MHRD and also the Inflatable Wings for UAVs project funded by DRDO.

As a project engineer, his research activities were mainly focused on multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) of LTA vehicles. The MDO of LTA vehicles was performed by developing surrogate models using high fidelity CFD simulations.

Commissioned officer in the Indian Air Force, he is currently pursuing MTech in Aerodynamic course at IIT Bombay as a part of the LTA lab since January 2021.

During hist post-graduation study (2020-2022), he worked as a team member on the Project HERCARA.

As a Research Scholar he worked on Multi-disciplinary Design Optimization of Multi-lobed Hybrid Airship Configuration under the guidance of Professor Rajkumar S. Pant during 2018-2020.

As a bachelors student during the period Jan-Nov 2017, he developed a low-cost aerostat for bird deterrence in agricultural applications.

He was a Project Manager during 2013-2018 during which he was involved in Design, fabrication and testing of various LTA systems including ITDA aerostat for telecommunications during emergency, Collapsible nose batten for airships, Payload recovery device for aerostats, Outdoor RC airship, Emergency deflation device, design, Semi outdoor autonomous airship as well as Remotely Operated All-Terrain Vehicle.

As a research intern during the period Aug 2018 - Aug 2019, he worked on the topic of "Design of Ground handling Workstation"

He carried out his research as a PhD scholar in the LTA lab during Jan 2013-Nov 2018. During his research he developed three test setups. He was also involved in enhancing ths work for the development of mathematical models ( novel) and later their implementation using MATHEMATICA, MATLAB and ABAQUS for numerical simulations.

As a research intern during the period Jan-July 2018, he worked on the topic of Design and fabrication of a test rig to determine helium permeability through LTA systems fabrics.

He was a Junior Technical Assistant during Dec 2013 - Mar 2015. He worked mostly in Avionics of LTA systems, 3D designs, created Emergency Deflation Devices for Remotely Controlled Airship, and was involved in the designing of autonomous flying airship.

He worked as a Summer Intern in the year 2006. As an intern he was involved in the project "Long Range Wireless Communication using Tethered Aerostat", while carrying out procurement of components followed by assembly, integration and field trails at BATU, Raigad etc.

He worked as a Project Director (Program Management), PADD (2001-2003) and as Consultant on DDSA (Mar 2021 - Aug 2021). As Project Director, (Program Management), he was part of the core team of the Program for Airship Development (PADD).

As an ex-intern in the LTA lab during Jan-May 2018, Mr. Arora designed and built a permeability tester to test permeation of gases through fabrics used for airships and aerostats.

He worked on postgraduation project between July 2012- June 2013. During this tenure, he worked with a team to develop one indoor and one semi-outdoor airship. He worked specifically on the designing and fabrication of Gondola System.

He was involved in a project involving Optimisation of aircraft traffic conflict detection and resolution.

During her undergraduate study in Aeronautical Engineering at the Manipal Institute of Technology, she was a research intern on projects involving hybrid airship design and developing Matlab tools for payload prediction for remotely controlled airships.

As a research fellow during 2015-2021, he was involved in design, dynamics, control and development of autonomous airship, while contributing his expertise for the Hercaraa project.

He carried out his postgraduation project work at the LTA Lab on the title "Material Characterization and Thermal Modelling of a Breakaway Balloon" and also worked on other Airship/Aerostat projects.

He worked on the autopilot for the mini-airship "Eureka" in summer '18, aerostat safety devices in summer 19, and an aerostat stabilization device as part of his BTP from Fall 19 to Spring 20. He also worked on the proposal for Project HERCARA, and as a Project Research Assistant from Jan-Aug 2021.

During his tenure in the LTA lab, he carried out the Conceptual and Preliminary designing, prototype development, and flight testing of various Airships (Indoor, Outdoor) and Aerostats. He also actively participated in the demonstration of LTA Systems at various national Academic Institutions.

During his tenure at the LTA lab, he worked in the area of Neural network control system for Airship and it's applications

He was involved in various activities related to Indoor Autonomous Airship designing.

During his tenure at the LTA lab, he worked on the designing of Electronic Control System for Airships. He wa sinvolved in the fabrication of a prototype of the control system which was further tested on a Blimp.

He was involved in the conceptual designing of an High Altitude Airship (HAA), content generation for a course on aircraft design and the sizing process of Hot Air Balloon (HAB).

During his venture in the LTA lab, he worked on developing airship/aerostat design tools. He was also responsible for engaging and delivering High Altitude Platforms for SASE and DRDO.

She was involved in the design and development of thrust vector mechanism for Airships.

During his research internship at LTA systems laboratory, he worked on the conceptual design and optimization of high altitude airships.

As a Project Research Assistant since Sept-2022, he worked on a project related to feasibility study of solar power generations using aerostats.

As a MTech student in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Mr. Shantanu served as a project engineer in a ISRO-IITB Project titled Multidisciplinary Design Optimization of LTA System for Venus Exploration".

Mr. Sohrab joined the PhD program in 2017 in the LTA Lab. An expert in structural mechanics, he also served as a Honorary Secretary, Honorary Secretary, Students Affairs at IAMA and a test pilot for experimental UAV platforms.