beckham
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IAF gets MoD’s nod to acquire a basic trainer
Ravi Sharma
BANGALORE: The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has given the Indian Air Force (IAF), whose training fleet is presently in a squeeze, the go ahead to acquire, ‘off the shelf,’ 75 basic trainer aircraft.
The Ministry’s decision comes in response to an urgent call from the IAF for an ab initio trainer, who, after the grounding of their Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) designed and manufactured Hindustan Piston Trainer-32 (HPT-32) last August, were left without this class of an aircraft to train flight cadets.
Official sources confirmed that the IAF will shortly send out a request for proposal (RFP) to a number of basic turbo prop aircraft manufacturers including Embraer (for their Tucano), Pilatus (PC-21), Raytheon (T-6 Texan), Finmeccanica (M-311), Grob Aircraft (G-120TP) and Korea Aerospace Industries (KT-1) in an effort to choose an appropriate trainer.
The grounding of the 125-strong HPT-32 fleet has meant that the IAF will perforce have to fast track the trainer’s selection process.
However, the selection process is expected to take a year, as the IAF must go through the tender process.
Given this scenario, a desperate IAF is even toying with the idea of introducing flying lessons for cadets at the Air Force Academy (AFA) near Hyderabad on the jet engine Kiran intermediate trainer.
But the HPT-32 still remains grounded with the Court of Inquiry that went into the reasons for the July 31 crash which killed two IAF instructs, finding that the trainer’s engine ran dry.
The HPT-32 has been plagued with engine cuts, a phenomena when the engine suddenly switches of in mid air. Ninety such incidents and 11 deaths have been reported since the trainer became operational in 1984.
_________________________________________________________________
Ravi Sharma
BANGALORE: The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has given the Indian Air Force (IAF), whose training fleet is presently in a squeeze, the go ahead to acquire, ‘off the shelf,’ 75 basic trainer aircraft.
The Ministry’s decision comes in response to an urgent call from the IAF for an ab initio trainer, who, after the grounding of their Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) designed and manufactured Hindustan Piston Trainer-32 (HPT-32) last August, were left without this class of an aircraft to train flight cadets.
Official sources confirmed that the IAF will shortly send out a request for proposal (RFP) to a number of basic turbo prop aircraft manufacturers including Embraer (for their Tucano), Pilatus (PC-21), Raytheon (T-6 Texan), Finmeccanica (M-311), Grob Aircraft (G-120TP) and Korea Aerospace Industries (KT-1) in an effort to choose an appropriate trainer.
The grounding of the 125-strong HPT-32 fleet has meant that the IAF will perforce have to fast track the trainer’s selection process.
However, the selection process is expected to take a year, as the IAF must go through the tender process.
Given this scenario, a desperate IAF is even toying with the idea of introducing flying lessons for cadets at the Air Force Academy (AFA) near Hyderabad on the jet engine Kiran intermediate trainer.
But the HPT-32 still remains grounded with the Court of Inquiry that went into the reasons for the July 31 crash which killed two IAF instructs, finding that the trainer’s engine ran dry.
The HPT-32 has been plagued with engine cuts, a phenomena when the engine suddenly switches of in mid air. Ninety such incidents and 11 deaths have been reported since the trainer became operational in 1984.
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