Several Civil Aviation Department aircraft were named after lunar related periods; Kartik (Sanskrit: कार्तिकः) is the eighth month of the Indian national calendar.
[1] It was a single seat, high performance machine, fairly conventional apart from the wing planform of the first variant, the KS-I Kartik.
Rather than the usual taper, its 15 m (49 ft 3 in) span, high, cantilever wing had inner and outer rectangular panels of different chord, 200 mm (7.9 in) narrower outboard.
It was fitted with ply covered, wood framed ailerons and had wooden air brakes which opened above and below at mid-chord.
Its tailplane, mounted at the top of the fuselage, was positioned forward of the fin so the rudder, which reached down to the keel, only required a small cut-out for operation.
Other changes were minor; there was a 100 mm (3.9 in) increase in length and a lowering of the cockpit, now fitted with a rear hinged canopy and with a better forward view.