Ex-IAF chief has more faith in Pilatus aircraft

On the teeth of opposition from the Indian Air Force (IAF), former Air chief Marshal NAK Browne has preferred to buy more of the Swiss-made Pilatus P-7 basic trainer and the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) is in process of integrating Hindustan Turboprop Trainer-40 (HTT-40). This comes after the completion of structural construction, including front and rear fuselage, sources said. The plan is to fly the aircraft by the end of this year.

The aircraft should be ready for rollout in a few months, the company sources said.

HAL had pumped in Rs 350 crore. The scope included the building of three prototypes and two test specimens. A detailed designing process has been completed. Fabrications of the canopy and windscreen are being built. The forging of the main landing gear axle and barrel, along with nose-landing gear barrel, has been completed. Wind tunnel testing of the fabricated portion has also been completed. Orders for various other components of the aircraft have been placed with the company’s other divisions, besides the main engineering division. HTT-40 is a tandem, two-seat trainer aircraft being developed by HAL for the first stage training of rookie pilots. With advanced features like zero-zero ejection seats and multi-function displays, it can also be adapted as a light attack aircraft.

Besides basic flying training, aerobatics, instrument flying, navigation, night flying and close formation flying are the tasks HTT-40 has been designed to accomplish.

Browne’s no-confidence vote on HTT-40 was publicly voiced on October 8, 2013, at the Air Force Day press conference. He had taken on HAL for derelictions of duties towards delivering the required services.

He had instead plumped for 38 more Pilatus P-7, whose life-cycle cost per aircraft, (according to him) was lower than the development cost of the HTT-40. But the proposal was shot down by the finance ministry after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government took office in May, 2014.

Now that HAL has got the nod to build HTT-40, it is going ahead full steam with the project. ALHAL.