Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-Delhi) and Indian Air Force (IAF) Maintenance Command, Nagpur have signed an MoU for research and development on advancing innovative technologies for aviation textiles focusing on parachutes and other safety equipment.

Both the institutes will cooperate, collaborate and promote research and development in areas of obsolescence management, self-reliance, upgradations and digitisation through indigenisation in the field of aviation-grade textiles.

Explaining the details of MoU Group Captain Prashant Pathak, Commanding Officer 16 BRD, AF said: “Some of the areas of interest for collaboration include raw material selection for various parachutes and safety equipment.

Development of modern technologies and equipment for technical textile or fabric testing and latest standards available for incorporation into product designs related to parachute and safety equipment, implementing AI and Robotics or imaging technologies for quality acceptance checks of textile, fabric raw material or finished products are also among the areas of collaboration.”

Group Captain Pathak further went on explain how the different parachute, brake parachute or cargo parachute canopies, associated harness and crew restraint systems that will come from field for repair with undergo innovating Machine Learning-based Imaging Technology which will further extend the life of the new product.

Going ahead, design and development, reliability studies, simulation studies, life extension studies of parachutes and associated accessories will also be part of the collaboration.