Bengaluru: Thirteen years after a prototype took to the skies, HAL’s intermediate jet trainer HJT-36 Sitara project has gone into a tailspin.
The Indian Air Force has told Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd to address basic flaws in its design. The trainer, IJT in official parlance, must be made capable of recovering from stall and spin, the IAF has informed the Bengaluru-based public sector major manufacturer. “You cannot fly an aircraft that can’t spin and recover from it. They have to return to the drawing board and make it work,” a senior IAF officer told Express on condition of anonymity. The IAF has expressed its displeasure over long delays at HAL, besides the aircraft’s inability to meet its requirements.
The project, begun in 1999, was hit by a series of accidents and a change of engine. The first prototype took to the skies in 2003 and six prototypes are now operational. “It is an aerodynamic or design flaw. It cannot be rectified unless they start all over again,” the officer said. That means the project will be delayed further.
03/08/15 Ramu Patil/New Indian Express
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
The Indian Air Force has told Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd to address basic flaws in its design. The trainer, IJT in official parlance, must be made capable of recovering from stall and spin, the IAF has informed the Bengaluru-based public sector major manufacturer. “You cannot fly an aircraft that can’t spin and recover from it. They have to return to the drawing board and make it work,” a senior IAF officer told Express on condition of anonymity. The IAF has expressed its displeasure over long delays at HAL, besides the aircraft’s inability to meet its requirements.
The project, begun in 1999, was hit by a series of accidents and a change of engine. The first prototype took to the skies in 2003 and six prototypes are now operational. “It is an aerodynamic or design flaw. It cannot be rectified unless they start all over again,” the officer said. That means the project will be delayed further.
03/08/15 Ramu Patil/New Indian Express
