Light Utility Helicopter clears high-altitude trials, says HAL

Vijay Mohan
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 5 

Advertisement

The Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has successfully demonstrated high-altitude capability in hot and high-weather conditions in the Himalayas.

The trials were carried out by the test pilots from HAL, Indian Air Force and the Army from August 24 to September 2.

The LUH has complied with all the requirements of the users and with the completion of hot and high-altitude testing, it is close to operational clearance certification. All planned tests were successfully demonstrated, an HAL spokesperson said on Thursday.

A comprehensive test plan was executed at Leh at altitudes of over 10,800 feet in temperatures up to 32 degrees Celsius, which included envelope expansion, performance and flying qualities. 

The LUH took off from Leh and demonstrated its hot and high-hover performance at Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO), the world’s highest landing strip at 16,400 feet, followed by trails at another forward helipad at 18,000 feet.

The helicopter embarked on a 3,000 km flight from Bengaluru to Leh over a period of three days traversing many civil and military airfields. During the course of ferrying and trials at high altitude, the chopper revealed high reliability without any service support.

The composite trials team included designers, flight test crew of HAL, the Air Force and the Army. Representatives of Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification as well as other quality assurance establishments also witnessed the trials.

The flights were completed by an HAL flight test team led by Wg Cdr Unni Pillai (retd), Chief Test Pilot (Rotary Wing), and accompanied by Wg Cdr Anil Bhambani (retd), Gp Capt Pupinder Singh (retd), Gp Capt V Panwar, Wg Cdr A Jena, a representative from the Air Force, Gp Capt R Dubey and Lt Col R Grewal from the Army.

Earlier, the LUH had undertaken hot-weather trials in the plains at Nagpur in 2018, cold0weather trials at Leh in 2019, sea-level trials at Chennai in 2018 and at Puducherry in 2019.