: Sep 9, 2020 -
: 10:35 am
Indian state-owned airframer, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has announced the completion of ‘Hot & High’ trials for its indigenously developed Light Utility Helicopter (LUH).
According to a HAL release, the LUH’s high altitude capability was demonstrated in Hot and High weather conditions in the Himalayas recently over a period of about 10 days.
The Army version of LUH is now ready for Initial Operational Clearance, according to R. Madhavan, CMD, HAL.
“The performance of the helicopter and its systems are satisfactory fulfilling the requirements of the users. All planned tests were successfully demonstrated,” said Arup Chatterjee, Director (Engineering and R&D), HAL.
The flights were carried out by composite trial team which included pilots from HAL, Wg Cdr (Retd) Unni Pillai, CTP (RW), Wg Cdr (Retd) Anil Bhambani, Gp Capt (Retd) Pupinder Singh and Gp Capt V Panwar along with Gp Capt R Dubey, Sq Ldr Joshi (from Indian Air Force) and Lt Col R Grewal & Lt Col Pawan (from Indian Army).
As part of the comprehensive test plan, trials were executed at Leh (3,300 M AMSL) in temperatures up to ISA+320C which included envelope expansion, performance and flying qualities.
The LUH also took off from Leh and demonstrated its hot and high hover performance at Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) at 5,000 M AMSL.
During the trials, pilots landed the helicopter at the highest Indian helipads of Amar and Sonam.
The LUH also demonstrated its payload capability in the Siachen glacier at high altitudes.
Initial Operational Clearance for the basic IAF variant of the LUH was granted by the Indian certification agency, CEMILAC on February 7, 2020.
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