HAL Dhruv Helicopter: In a major milestone for India’s indigenous light helicopter Dhruva, state owned military aircraft manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Tuesday rolled out the 300th Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) from hanger.
“ALH never looked back from the day when the prototype took its maiden flight on August 30, 1992 and has evolved into a world class helicopter with its unparalleled performance,” said R Madhavan, CMD of HAL.
“The evolution from ALH Mark-I to Mark-IV has been phenomenal and is a boost to the indigenous design and development of helicopters,” R Madhvan said.
The Roll-out certificate of the 300th helicopter was handed over to GVS Bhaskar, Chief Executive Officer, Helicopter Complex by YK Sharma, Additional Director General (South Zone), Directorate General of Aeronautical Quality Assurance (DGAQA) at a programme held at HAL’s Helicopter Division.
Bhaskar said rolling-out of 300th ALH is a testimony to the capabilities HAL has built over the years with concerted efforts of employees and customer support.
READ: Aero India 2021: India begins space booking for prestigious defence event
“With more ALH getting inducted into the services our focus on customer support is ever increasing. With over 2,80,000 flying hours ALH has proven to be a multirole helicopter for any mission, any place, any time,” he said.
Currently, HAL is producing 73 ALHs contracted for Army (41), Indian Navy (16) and Indian Coast Guard (16). Out of this, 38 ALHs have already been produced and the remaining will be completed by 2022.
On this occasion the ‘Ground Run’ of the first Limited Series Production (LSP) of Light Combat Helicopter-Limited Series Production (LCH-LSP) was also carried out. This project has been taken up by the company proactively while the order from Services on HAL is in process.
READ: India’s DRDO successfully testfires Hypersonic Missile HSTDV
The LCH was piloted by Group Captain Hari Krishnan Nair S (Retd); Chief Test Pilot and Group Captain CG Narasimha Prasad (Retd); and Senior Flight Test Engineer of Flight Operations, Rotary Wing.
S Anbuvelan, Executive Director, Helicopter Division; Wing Commander Unni Pillai (Retd), Executive Director (Flight Operations-Rotary Wing); V Sivasubramanian, General Manager, Helicopter Division and others were present on the occasion.
READ: Space Mission: HAL delivers key components for GSLV rockets to ISRO
