India's 1st indigenous flying trainer completes sea-level trials

Bengaluru: India's first indigenous flying trainer, 'HANSA-NG,' successfully finished the sea-level trails at Puducherry. Designed and built by CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), the flight completed trials from February 19 to March 5, PTI reported.

In a statement on Saturday, NAL said that the aircraft was flown to Puducherry on February 19 and had covered 140 nautical miles in 1.5 hours with a cruising speed of 155km/h. These trials aimed to evaluate handling qualities, climb/cruise performance, baulked landing, structural performance, including positive and negative G, power plant and other systems performance at sea level, it said.

All the objectives were on the sea-level trails were met, and the flight was ferried back to Bengaluru on March 5. It had completed 18 hours of flying in Puducherry, the statement said.

The aircraft was piloted by Wing Commander K V Prakash and Wing Commander Dilip Reddy of Aircraft & Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE), and the flight was monitored by NAL designers and Wg. Cdr. Reeju Chakraborty as Flight Test Director from telemetry.

NAL testifies that HANSA-NG is one of the most advanced flying trainers. It is powered by Rotax Digital Control Engine, which has unique features like Just-In-Time Prepreg (JIPREG) Composite Lightweight Airframe, glass cockpit, bubble canopy with wide panoramic view, electrically operated flaps, etc. The flight is designed for Indian flying club needs, ideal for Commercial Pilot Licensing (CPL) due to its low cost and low fuel consumption. NAL has already received more than 80 LoIs (Letter of Intents) from various flying clubs, NAL added.

NAL Director Jitendra J Jadhav informed that the aircraft had completed 37 flights and 50 hours of flying. After a few more flights, it will get Type Certification by DGCA, he said. He added that Type Certification might be completed by April, and after that, manufacturing the craft will start with public/private industry under 'Atmanirbhar Bharat'.