JALDOST Airboat:
The National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) unveiled the JALDOST airboat.
- JALDOST is an airboat that operates on water.
- It is designed to remove excess aquatic weed and floating waste from water bodies.
- It has a closed airtight pontoon type hull to make it inherently unsinkable.
- According to NAL, it has a hybrid propulsion system, comprising air propulsion and paddle wheel propulsion.
- The ability to travel through weed makes JALDOST an ideal platform to collect them and bring them to the shore.
- A steel mesh belt conveyor system fixed in the front collects the waste. The collected waste falls on the horizontal deck conveyor.
- After reaching the shore, the collected waste is unloaded by a rear conveyor system to trucks or tractors.
- NAL has developed two versions of the airboat — JALDOST Mark-1 and an upgraded version JALDOST Mark-2.
National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL)
- It is a constituent of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India, established in the year 1959.
- It is the only government aerospace R&D laboratory in the country’s civilian sector.
- CSIR-NAL is a high-technology-oriented institution focusing on advanced disciplines in aerospace.
- It has several advanced test facilities, and many of them are recognized as National Facilities.
- It has provided significant value-added inputs to all the Indian national aerospace programmes.
